Is It Wrong To Thank The Youma?
by LunaV-chan
Summary: Mamoru is severely injured by a youma attack, and Usagi sees it. But Usagi can't figure out... was the youma attack a random one, or is Mamoru much more than he appears? Because she keeps finding some strange things in his apartment...
1. Chapter 1

Is It Wrong to Thank The Youma?  
Chapter One

* * *

The day had started out like any other. The sun had shined throughout the entire day, without a single cloud dotting the bright, blue sky. Usagi had gone to school, unwillingly of course, and Luna had nagged her the entire way home about how her homework _had_ to be completed before they went to the Hikawa Shrine to meet the other senshi for a meeting that night.

Usagi had, of course, only grumbled in return that the cat seriously needed to get a life so that Usagi could eat snacks and watch TV in the afternoon, but Luna scratched her ankle in response, causing Usagi to jump, yelp, and break into a run toward her house.

And that was when the day became one of the longest, most horrid days of Tsukino Usagi's entire fifteen years of existence.

The girl turned a sidewalk corner, and then she suddenly skidded to a sharp stop with a horrified gasp breaking through her lips. The black cat at her side stopped as well and watched Usagi's crystal blue eyes. Confused, Luna looked to see what her owner found so absolutely terrifying.

A massive, gnarled youma with scaly, snakelike, red skin stood not fifty meters away from them in the quiet street. It was such a disgusting creature to be placed in such a serene, normal surrounding. No one was in the street save one single man, and that man was currently held up in the youma's grip, dangling precariously high above the concrete of the road. Thankfully, the youma was slowly walking away from the girl and her cat, so it didn't notice them standing there. It chugged along slowly, its massive iron feet breaking the road into chunks of concrete as it went.

Usagi could hear Luna yelling at her to transform, but the blonde odangoed girl was in such a trance that she couldn't hear anything. Her eyes were glued to the man in the youma's talons, a lump of pure terror choking in her throat, and she suddenly let out a strangled scream.

The youma turned, seeing her. It's yellow, snaking eyes contacted with hers and it let out a hiss, its dragon head turning completely around from its head. Usagi screamed again when the monster didn't even bother to turn its body around to walk toward her.

She instantly reached for the broach at her breast, and Luna sighed a breath of relief that she was back into her senses.

"Moon Prism Power Make Up!" She yelled, and swirls of pink ribbon surrounded the girl in a flash, changing her instantly into the heroine Sailor Moon, with blue miniskirt and red bow glimmering in the bright sunlight. Not even taking a moment to stop in her signature pose or yell out her customary warning, she raced forward, her hand grabbing the tiara off her forehead in a single motion. "Moon Tiara Action!" She yelled, and she twirled the glowing disc toward the monster in a swift swoop. Thankfully, it hit its target, slicing the youma's arm off completely. The arm dropped to the ground, and so did the man. His limp body rolled away for several meters, stopping in the middle of the road, with his face down in the concrete. Sailor Moon itched to go toward him, but she knew that there was no way it would be safe for her to go near him with the youma still alive. She waited for her tiara to clip itself back in place on her forehead, and she turned her attention back to the youma. She gulped as she noticed that somehow, the monster had grown its arm back in place. She glanced to where the other arm had been, but there was nothing but dust in its place.

"L-l-lunaaa," she wailed, her eyes widening to the point of bugging out of her skull. "What do I do now?!!"

Luna, for her part, was amazed that the youma had regenerated its arm. "Ah... Sailor Moon, call the other senshi!"

Nodding frantically and breaking into a run when the youma started chasing after her, Sailor Moon screamed and flipped open her communicator. "Guys, help!! There's a youma! I'm near my house, about ten minutes from the school! Hurry, please!" She snapped it shut and continued to run. "Luna! Think of something, quick!"

"What do you expect me to do, use my laser vision on it?!" Luna screamed back sarcastically, her eyes slitting narrowly, and the senshi beside her whimpered unhappily.

"Fire Soul!"

Sailor Moon gasped out happily when fire blazed past her shoulder at the youma behind her. She heard its screaming terror at the fire, and she stopped, whipping around to see if it was eliminated. Its body was melting into a pit of tar, and Sailor Moon breathed an extremely relieved sigh. She saw Sailor Mars standing haughtily beside her, hand on her hips and a smirk on her face.

"Can't do anything without me, huh?" She teased, winking one violet eye at the odangoed senshi. Sailor Moon was too happy to see the raven haired senshi to retort.

"Supreme Thunder!"

Sailor Mars and Sailor Moon jumped and looked to their side, where Sailor Jupiter dropped down beside them. They looked back at the youma and saw that it was now evaporating into the same dust Sailor Moon had seen from its arm. The Moon senshi sighed in relief as she saw it disappear. Sailor Jupiter wiped her brow and grinned, her green eyes twinkling.

"I always love being the one to finish it off!" She enthused, shaking her brunette ponytail happily.

Sailor Moon giggled at her friend. "Thank goodness you guys got here. My tiara took off its arm, but then it came back!"

Sailor Mars frowned, looking to the dust that was dissolving away. "That's strange, because usually your tiara disintegrates everything."

Sailor Moon bit her lip and nodded, shrugging her shoulders. "I don't understand it." Then she suddenly gasped. "Oh, god!" She yelled, and she rushed away from the girls.

They looked at each other in confusion and then turned to watch Sailor Moon. They both gasped when they noticed the man on the ground where Sailor Moon had dropped to her knees. They ran up behind her.

"Oh my god, Mamoru-san!" Sailor Mars squeaked, clapping a hand over her mouth. Sailor Moon was tentatively turning him over, his head landing in her lap. All of the senshi shuddered when they took in his form. His clothes were completely tattered. His horribly ugly green jacket was now just strips of green over strips of a black sweater. Sailor Moon could see blood coursing down his skin through the many gaps in his clothes. His face looked exactly the same as his chest and stomach, with long, deep cuts all the way down him from head to toe. Sailor Moon felt her fear bubbling from the deepest pits of her stomach to the surface, and she let out a strangled sob.

"The youma," she cried. "Its claws must have done this to him." Gingerly, she reached down toward his face, but then she snapped her hand back and stopped, turning her head to look at Jupiter and Mars. "How... how exactly do I check to see if he has a pulse?" She looked terrified, and the two senshi exchanged a glance before Jupiter went around and got on her knees on Mamoru's other side. Reaching down, the thunder senshi put two fingers to a specific spot on the top of his neck.

Sailor Moon and Sailor Mars held their breath while they waited, and Jupiter nodded. "It's weak, but it's there."

Sailor Moon bent her ear over his mouth, and she felt a strained, weak breath of air come from his lips. "I can feel him breathing... barely..." She whispered. "What do we do? Do... do we take him to a hospital?"

Luna, sitting at Sailor Mars' feet, shook her head. "If at all possible, we need to keep public attention away from the presence of youma. It causes panic in the city, Sailor Moon. Especially a man being mauled by one."

Sailor Moon flinched, her eyes glued to Mamoru's pale form. "We can't just leave him here; he'll bleed to death. We have to help him somehow, right?" She whipped her head around to look at Mars.

The fire senshi frowned, tapping her red heeled shoe against the hard concrete. "We can't take him to the temple; there's no way... and no, Sailor Moon, you certainly cannot take him home with you! Your parents would freak out beyond freaking out!"

The senshi let the words die on her lips. She stared down at Mamoru for a long moment, hearing him struggle for breath, his chest rising shallowly. She felt quivers course through her at how pale and fragile he looked. "Does... doesn't Mamoru-ba—I mean, Mamoru-san, live alone? Motoki-kun told me once..." She looked across at Jupiter. "Can't we call and ask Motoki-kun where he lives? We could take him there and care for him..."

Sailor Jupiter felt her eyebrows rising. She exchanged a glance with Sailor Mars, who simply shrugged behind Moon. She didn't really have any idea why Sailor Moon was freaking out so much over Mamoru, except that maybe she felt guilty that he had been hurt? The thunder senshi shrugged back and got to her feet. She pulled out her communicator and called Minako. Walking away from the two, she explained the situation to the missing love senshi, who explained that she had just gotten out of detention and could not get away to help in the youma battle. The blonde told Jupiter she would take care of Motoki.

"He lives near the Azaba college, I know it." Sailor Moon was saying to Mars and Luna when Jupiter returned. "We should at least start heading that way, right? Right??"

"Okay, Sailor Moon... calm down." Luna said soothingly, her red eyes sympathetic. "We need to be very careful not to let anyone see us or him, but we can try..."

Thankfully, Jupiter's communicator went off and she flipped it open. Minako gave her Mamoru's address, and Jupiter thanked her before shutting the contraption off. "Alright, he lives on the 12th floor of the 4th street Azaba Apartment Complex... wow, that place is expen—okay, never mind... anyways, we should hurry; he's looking worse."

Sailor Moon flinched and looked down. In fact, he was looking worse. He was growing paler and his breaths were becoming even more ragged. She gulped when she noticed he was shaking. "He's lost so much blood, he has to be freezing..." She whimpered. Shaking her head, she stood and gently placed his head on the ground. "How are we going to get over there?"

"Easy. We're going to use the Sailor Teleport."

The three senshi turned to see Sailor Mercury with her hands crossed in front of her, a soft smile on her face, and Sailor Venus grinning right beside her, a hand on her slender hip. Sailor Moon sighed a breath of relief. "What great timing, you guys!"

"Yeah, that's what we thought!" Sailor Venus chirped. "I don't think I've ever run faster in my life; whatcha think, Mercury?"

The ice senshi beside her shook her head. "Venus, the arcade is exactly two minutes from here when we're not transformed, and less than thirty seconds when we are. We barely ran at all." Mercury smiled to the others. "Sorry I wasn't here, I was in cram school and had just gotten to the arcade when Minako was running out. I guess I got out right on time."

"Perfectly so!" Moon breathed. "Let's hurry, guys!"

* * *

Mamoru felt trapped. It was so hard to breathe, and there was a large pressure on his chest; it was as if a stone wall had descended upon him. He choked for breath, for air... and he couldn't see anything but darkness. He could hear something in the distance... voices? They were light and musical, but he couldn't make out any words, only strange sounds so far away in the distance...

He tried to fight the wall, but he was so very, very tired... finally, he gave in, and the darkness overtook him.

* * *

Usagi stared down at Mamoru's pale form, her heart hammering away in her chest like a fluttering hummingbird. "How.. how long do you think it will be before he wakes up?"

Ami, sitting on the edge of Mamoru's bed, looked up at the girl standing beside her with a soft smile. "Give him time to heal, Usagi-chan. You have to realize that his body has suffered a huge trauma today... he's much better off this way. He can't feel the pain of his injuries."

Usagi nodded absently, her worried blue eyes focused on Mamoru's closed ones.

Ami shook her head and rose, patting Usagi on the shoulder. "Let him rest." She whispered, her blue eyes taking in Usagi's trance-like stare with worry. The girl didn't even bother to look at Ami; she just nodded and continued staring down at the man in the bed. With a frown, Ami exited the room, shutting it softly behind her. The other girls were sitting in Mamoru's living area, lounging on his sofa and chairs.

Makoto looked up from flipping through channels on his TV. Her green eyes were glazed over in amazement. "Do you know he has over two thousand channels? I mean, how much TV does one guy need?"

Rei was mesmerized by the screen. Her own violet eyes were wide, gazing at the television as if she had never seen one before. "Or how big of a TV, we should say."

Ami sighed, shaking her blue-haired head."In any case, he's resting now. I've bandaged most of his wounds.. with Usagi-chan's help," She noticed the other girls look up with raised eyebrows, "but I don't think he's going to be waking up anytime soon. We should come back tomorrow. I... I think Usagi-chan is going to stay."

"Alone?" Minako squeaked from her spot on the sofa. "What will her parents say?"

"She's going to stay in a college _man's_ apartment, unchaperoned?" Rei jumped up, her eyes turning wary.

Ami rolled her blue eyes again. "Really, guys, come on. He's unconscious, for one, and even when he does wake up, he's barely able to move with his injuries... and it's Mamoru-san, for goodness sakes! He wouldn't hurt her even if he could! He's been in love with Usagi-chan for ages!"

"That's kind of why they're freaked out, I think, Ami-chan," Makoto noted, obviously not worried in the least. She continued to kick her heeled shoe back and forth and flip absently through the channels.

Ami shook her head. "I think he's a respectable person. He's never made any ill move toward her before."

"Eeeeexcept for the teasing her relentlessly and calling her Odango Atama and poking fun at her and..."

"Minako-chan, we get it." Rei sighed, putting a hand to her face.

"Right."

"In any case, we should go. We have school tomorrow." Ami said.

"So does Usagi-chan..." Minako whined, punching a couch pillow unhappily. She pouted, wishing she had a good enough reason to skip school.

"I would usually argue that point as well," Ami pursed her lips, glancing back toward the bedroom door. "But she said she's not budging. Tomorrow is Friday... she'll be okay missing one day. I'll call her parents here in a minute and tell them she's going to stay the weekend at my house for an extended study session, starting tonight."

"Smart." Rei nodded.

"That's what I thought." Ami sighed. "Let's go... Mako-chan, put down the remote!"

* * *

End Chapter One

I know, I know, I JUST finished Destiny Decision........ but I just can't help myself! And I've had this idea in my head for a while now, too, and now that DD is finished, I can focus on a new story! Woo! Anyways, hope you all like, and please review!! Pretty, pretty please?? :)

(This edition of the chapter was edited again on 3/20/10. Added in a few more details and corrected a few grammatical errors.)


	2. Chapter 2

Is It Wrong To Thank The Youma?  
Chapter Two

* * *

Her shoulders aching and her back screaming at her, Usagi finally sighed and stood from the chair at Mamoru's bedside. She had been sitting there for... well, she didn't really know how long, but it had been ages, she knew. She decided she had better take a break from watching over him before she really did make herself go mad with worry.

She stepped outside of the bedroom and pulled the door closed. On the dark carpet floor beside Mamoru's bedroom door, a duffel bag with pink bunnies sat. Ami had come back once more, after the other senshi had left, saying that she had snuck through Usagi's bedroom window and packed her some belongings. Usagi knew that Ami had watched her worriedly before she had left the second time, but the blonde girl really couldn't be bothered to say much of anything, because her mind was so focused on Mamoru. So she had forced herself to nod, hoping that Ami would understand that she really couldn't do anything else.

Now she looked down at the bag in relief, mentally reminding herself to thank Ami for thinking of her needs when she herself most certainly had let the thoughts slip away from her. She was still in her school uniform, and she could really use a shower. But first... she looked up to scan Mamoru's apartment. She was in the living room; she saw a beige couch with two matching, comfortable looking chairs, and... an extremely large television. Well... she pursed her lips. Mamoru was very obviously a typical male.

When they had teleported here earlier, she hadn't really paid any attention to the surroundings. Her only thoughts had been about getting Mamoru into the bed, and she had been hovering around Ami while she treated him ever since. Usagi was, quite frankly, amazed at how helpful she actually was when she was focused enough. Usually she was clumsy with just about everything, but she had followed Ami's instructions with the bandages perfectly. (Somehow, Ami had found everything that they needed in Mamoru's bathroom... but why would Mamoru have so many medical supplies in his apartment? Surely medical students didn't keep a mini hospital under their bathroom sink?) Usagi's hands had shaken terribly the entire time she had been helping with Mamoru's treatment, but she wasn't sure if it was because she was scared, or if it was because she was touching his bare skin. The gashes along his chest were terrible and deep, but once the dried blood was cleared away, she felt a little relief in that he didn't look quite as bad. And she could definitely tell what he looked like when he was perfectly healthy; he was... well....

Usagi paused in her thoughts, leaning against the door. He was... perfect? Yes, that pretty much summed it all up in one single word. Chiba Mamoru was perfect. Strong arms, back, chest... he was the perfect tall and handsome guy that every girl in the world would fall for, and that she would definitely never be with.

She sighed involuntarily, one hand pushing her bangs back from her face. She closed her eyes and pounded her head softly against the door. She was incredibly in love with him. She had been for... oh, she didn't even know how long. Maybe months? Since she had met him? She didn't really know anymore. But seeing him like that, seeing a youma trying to kill him with its bare hands... a powerful youma that no mere man could face without being harmed... it had nearly eaten her alive inside. She was Sailor Moon; she was supposed to protect people from harm, and the man she was in love with... _he was the one that got hurt? _

"It doesn't make any sense," She whispered to herself, tears brimming up in her crystal blue eyes. She sobbed softly to herself, letting the tears fall. The day had been so horrible; the sun was setting now, and nighttime was coming, and she couldn't be happier that it would be over. But she was terrified for Mamoru, and the nighttime hours scared her. She was going to be here alone, with no one to help her... Ami had said to call her if any need arose, but still she was scared. What if Mamoru woke up, saw her, and ordered her away? He could very well do just that, considering that he absolutely hated her and would be wondering why the hell the stupid high school girl he called Odango Atama was in his apartment.

But the worse option was... _what if he didn't wake up?_

Usagi shook her odangoed head fiercely and pushed herself away from the door. Dropping to the floor, she grabbed out pajama bottoms, a tank top, and underwear, before heading down the hall in search of Mamoru's bathroom. Finding it, she went in and turned on the shower, finding it impossible not to inspect his things. She smiled to herself at how meticulously neat he was... everything was in perfect order... and oh god, were his soaps and shampoos in alphabetical order? She blinked repeatedly at the bottles arranged on his counter.

"Okay, Mamo-chan, that's a little weird..." She muttered to herself, giggling slightly when she found herself uttering her private nickname for him. She turned the water on and stepped away from the shower to wait for the water to heat up. She stared in the mirror above his sink at her appearance. She was extremely pale, the worry obviously getting to her. She pursed her small, pink lips.

But.. she wasn't technically _ugly_, was she? Normally, when she wasn't looking like a ghost with messy hair and bloodshot eyes from crying? She thought her eyes were pretty... maybe not as intense a blue as Minako's (she had the prettiest blue eyes Usagi had ever seen) or as unique as Rei's violet orbs... but they were still a pretty, bright blue with dark eyelashes framing them. Her nose was... kinda plain, honestly. It was small, in the middle of her face... it was a nose, what more could she say? She scrunched it in scrutiny. Yeah, it was just a normal nose.

She was extremely short. In fact, she was the shortest of her friends. She envied all of the senshi for their heights. They were all at least two or three inches taller than she was. Usagi's eyes traveled to her bust line. She frowned. And okay, she admitted it. She really, _really_ envied Makoto's frame. She was the envy of all the other girls as well, she knew; She had the _perfect_ bust size, _and _she was the tallest. How could that be fair?

Usagi sighed and let out of a puff of air, ruffling her bangs in the process. Her eyes narrowed as she stared at her hair. Sure, her hair was always in a strange hairstyle and Mamoru teased the hell out of her for it... but it was kind of necessary? She was Sailor Moon, after all... and besides, she'd worn the hairstyle her whole life. It was like her trademark, honestly. She'd grown her hair out since she was just a small child! It was so long now that when it was undone from the twirls on her head, it trailed to the floor. She turned her head. But maybe Mamoru would see her differently if she changed it. She twinged at the thought of cutting her precious locks, though. Even if Mamoru did tease her about it, her hair was the one thing she absolutely loved about herself.

She felt the steam leaving the shower and sighed, turning away from the mirror and taking her clothes off. Once the hot water hit her skin, she purred in contentment at some sort of comfort finally finding her for the day. She pursed her lips in thought as she stood there. She was in Mamoru's apartment, in Mamoru's shower........ well, this was something she had definitely never seen coming.

She had reacted strongly, to Mamoru's injuries... and she knew all the girls were wondering what on Earth was going on with her. She hadn't exactly been able to confess to them that she was desperately in love with Mamoru... mostly because she was sure they would look at her like she had suddenly grown a duck bill, horse feet, horns, a dog tail, bunny ears.... the list could go on. And partly because she was afraid that if she did confess, even to her friends, then it would actually be out there and not safely tucked away, only in her private thoughts.

She sniffed several of Mamoru's shampoos, settling for the one that smelled the most fruity and least manly. Then she cringed, wondering if he had this one for a girlfriend or something? Did Mamoru have a girlfriend? He'd never brought anyone with him to the arcade, but then again, why would he bring his girlfriend to a stupid kid's arcade? She was pretty sure he only stopped by everyday to see Motoki and get free coffee. Usagi felt her eyes roll at the thought of Mamoru and his coffee. He would have two or three cups in the afternoon sometimes! She felt bad for him... his school must be extremely stressful if he needed that much coffee to keep going.

Unwillingly, Usagi sighed and shut the water off. She took a towel from the little shelf (also meticulously arranged) beside the shower and dried off, wrapping her hair in it and pulling her pajama pants and tank top on.

She went back out into the main room and looked through her bag, hoping Ami had packed her hairbrush. Thankfully, she had, and Usagi pulled the towel off her hair to start brushing it through with the brush while walking back into Mamoru's bedroom. Her heart flipped at the sight of him, still laying so silent and still. But his breaths seemed stronger now, and his chest was moving evenly up and down. Her heart clenched and her breath caught. She sat on the side of the bed, completely skipping over the chair that she had pulled close to the bedside, and looked down at him. He really did just look like he was sleeping.

She felt a blush rise up her neck as she stared at him. He was adorable when he was sleeping, even with the cuts along his face. The gashes along his face were long and deep, and it looked like the youma had just swiped straight down his face. The cuts trailed from his forehead all the way down his neck and further down across his chest. She and Ami hadn't bandaged his face or neck, thinking it would make it even more uncomfortable for him if they had, but she remembered the cuts on the skin of his chest. They crisscrossed, and she could tell that the youma had slashed in several different directions. She shuddered, her thoughts focusing in on the youma's large, taloned fingers. They had looked like they could cause a lot of damage, and to Mamoru, they really had.

"Please be okay," she whispered. Of course, she was pretty sure that he couldn't hear her... so she let herself have one small bit of comfort. "Mamo-chan.." she breathed, reaching her hand out slowly to brush back a piece of soft, black hair that had fallen over his eyes. She imagined his eyes for a moment and smiled. She adored his eyes. They were dark blue... sometimes they were such a dark blue that she thought, when he was upset or angry, that they were black. Unfortunately for her, he often cast angry or upset looks at her. Mostly when they were having one of their arguments... which was almost every day. She sighed and trailed her fingers across his face gently. She stopped and simply rested her hand against the skin of his cheek, avoiding the cuts. It stayed in place, resting against his cool, pale cheek.

She didn't move again for a very long while. Amazingly, Tsukino Usagi forgot about her biggest love next to the man in front of her: food.

* * *

Mamoru felt the stone lifting off his chest, the darkness slowly easing away from him... he still couldn't see anything, but it felt so much easier to breathe now, and he took in the air as if he hadn't breathed in weeks. The voices were completely gone now, and it was silent for the longest time. Then, a soft sound echoed through through his ears, and it was one of the voices he had heard before, but yet, he still couldn't make out the words. The voice spoke once more, and he felt something cool and soft touch him. He waited, but no, it didn't move... the soft feeling stayed against his skin, caressing his face softly. Exhaustion overcame him again, and he fell back into a peaceful sleep, the new, soft caress lulling him to sleep.

* * *

Usagi snapped out of her reverie when she felt and heard her stomach rumble loudly. Groaning, she pulled her hand away from Mamoru's face unhappily. Looking at him for a moment more, she stood and left the bedroom once again, this time leaving the door open. Padding in her bare feet around his living room, she figured that the wide, open doorway near the front of the apartment was the kitchen, and she was correct. She stepped into the small, clean space and surveyed it. It was exactly the same as his bathroom. Everything was organized and in perfect order. It was all so very... bare... though. She frowned slightly, wondering why Mamoru made everything so very plain? His personality didn't match his apartment at all. Even his living room and bedroom were the same way... no pictures, no paintings, no photos. No decorations. Just efficiency.

"Maybe he doesn't have a girlfriend," she muttered, hoping to herself. "A girlfriend would probably decorate the place..."

She went to the refrigerator, hoping he had food that didn't require any cooking; she really didn't want to burn his apartment down with him and her both in it. Sighing, she saw that his refrigerator was pretty bare, just like the rest of the apartment. There were a few bottles of wine, some cheese, milk, and a few fruits and vegetables that didn't exactly look appetizing to the blonde. She opened the freezer and found nothing except some frozen meats. "Does the man not buy ice cream or frozen dinners?" She grumbled. She started opening his cabinet doors. Finding a box of granola cereal, she shrugged and settled for it, thinking that milk and cereal was the only safe option for her.

Finding a bowl (it was amazingly easy to move around his kitchen and find things; everything was labeled perfectly and so organized!), Usagi poured her cereal and escaped into the living room to eat. She curled up in one of the chairs, not bothering to turn on the television, and began to eat, keeping her ears open to any sounds that might come from the bedroom.

* * *

Mamoru frowned to himself when he felt that he was waking up, because the softness that had been there was completely gone. The stone wall on his chest was gone, the darkness was slipping away, and finally... he opened his eyes, finding that he had the energy to finally do so. He blinked several times, forcing himself to keep his eyes open and not sink back down into the exhaustion. Not moving his head, he moved his eyes around, noting that he was in his bedroom.

He frowned to himself; how had he ended up here? He had been... where had he been? He... oh, that was right. He had been walking toward Usagi's school, hoping he would run into her on her way home or to the arcade. Then... something... something had happened... he felt too tired to continue thinking about it, so he stopped. He heard movement and the sound of water running, and he tried to turn his head. A burst of pain surged through his head at the movement, and he cried out, his voice catching into a tortured scream, and he squeezed his eyes shut as the pain rolled over him. It throbbed at his neck, and he wheezed out breaths, his teeth clenched.

The noise he heard completely stopped. Then, less than a minute later, someone was sitting on the bed beside him; a small, delicate frame that barely moved the bed. Something cold pressed against his face and neck, and he shivered, opening his eyes slowly. He nearly choked; his eyes widened and he gasped out.

"O-Odango?!"

The girl above him smiled shyly, rubbing the washcloth gently over his bruised and beaten neck, which had undoubtedly been the cause of his pain when he had turned his head. "Hi Mamo-c—Mamoru-san."

His breathing hiked up a notch; he felt his heart moving incredibly fast, but he couldn't make it stop... what was going on? Why was Usagi in his apartment, why was... he laying here, why couldn't he move, and why... he felt his eyes slipping shut as exhaustion overcame him again. He tried to force them open.

"Oh, no, no, don't do that..." He heard Usagi's soft voice whispering above him, her hands fluttering over him, the cloth moving against his skin. "You really need to rest... really, don't worry... I'll explain everything to you, I promise, but it's really important that you rest and get better, okay?"

His stormy blue eyes opened again and took in her worried face, and he realized with a start that her eyes were filled with tears. "Why are you crying?" he whispered, his eyes half shut.

She laughed, and he felt his heart warm at the sound. One of her hands was gone and he watched with tired eyes as she wiped away the tears that were escaping from her pretty blue eyes. "I'm just so glad that you woke up." Then she reached up and brushed her fingertips against his eyelashes, sweeping his eyes closed. "Go back to sleep," she whispered, her sweet, musical voice soft. He could barely hear her; he was so close to sleep again. "It's okay, Mamo-chan."

_Mamo-chan? _He wondered for a moment longer, until the exhaustion said hello again and he fell into a deep sleep.

* * *

Usagi yawned. She was utterly exhausted, but she really didn't want to leave Mamoru's side for even a moment. What if he woke up again? Tried to move again? She clenched her teeth, squeezing her eyes shut. The scream... hearing his scream of pain; it was quite possibly the most horrible sound in the world, one that shouldn't ever have to exist.

The blonde girl opened her eyes again to look down at Mamoru, who was peacefully sleeping once again, his eyes lightly closed and lips parted slightly as his breath evenly came and went in his chest. She smiled, and she felt her heart grow lighter at seeing him resting, knowing that he would wake up again. She brushed her hand against his cheek again. She was becoming addicted to the motion, but as long as he was sleeping, what did it matter? He hadn't exactly pushed her away when he had been awake, either... but she frowned. That might have been because he was so lost and confused... and because it caused him a great deal of pain to even move.

Usagi yawned again, this time having to take one of her hands to cover the motion. She sighed, because she knew she had to have some rest... especially if she was going to take care of Mamoru when he woke up again.

She glanced across at the empty place in the bed beside him. Did she dare? What would he do if he woke up to see her beside him? She bit her lip, gnawing on it roughly. But the couch didn't exactly look comfortable, and besides, she was just going to _sleep_. Besides, she would even force herself not to touch him at all. Yes, that was exactly what she would do.

* * *

When morning came and Usagi opened her eyes, she thought it was still night outside. Looking beside her, she saw that Mamoru was still sleeping, and she smiled. Blushing, she realized that her hand was entwined in his. _How did that happen? _She wondered. She shrugged inwardly and sat up, rolling her head around on her shoulders to stretch. Reluctantly, she pulled her hand away from Mamoru's. Standing and walking to the bedroom window, she pushed the simple beige curtain back. She sighed, noting that a soft drizzle was descending from the sky, and that dark clouds were everywhere. It was going to be a rainy, gloomy day.

She turned from the window and looked back at Mamoru. Would he be hungry when he woke up? Would he be better? She bit her lip. She had no experience whatsoever in caring for anyone. Sure, she would help her family members when they were sick, but never had she dealt with anything like this before. She had just helped her mother with chores, or she would make chicken soup (the one and only thing her mother had trusted her enough to make; apparently, the woman had reasoned that even Usagi was capable enough to handle soup from a can).

But Usagi had a feeling that chores and chicken soup weren't going to be much help to Mamoru.

Sighing, she left the bedroom in search of more cereal. One thing was for certain: if she was going to take care of Mamoru, she was going to _have_ to get some better food.

* * *

Thankfully, Mamoru was finding it much easier to wake up. It wasn't as stifling or difficult, and when he opened his eyes, the exhaustion wasn't as bad.

He didn't try moving his neck again, but he flexed his fingers. Relieved that he didn't seem completely paralyzed when he was able to close his hands into fists, he tried raising his arms. He hissed, wincing and shutting his eyes, when pain shot up both arms like fire. He dropped his arms and waited for the pain to recede.

"Mamoru-san, please stop that..." He opened his eyes. Usagi, her blue eyes wide and worried, sat at the side of his bed again, staring down at him. He opened his mouth to say something, but he found that he had no idea where to start. The girl gave him a small smile. "You keep hurting yourself. Don't try to move yet, okay?" She bit her lip and turned her head away from him. "I wish Ami-chan was here. I'm sure she'd be much more help to you than I am. She promised she'd come by after school, but until then, you're kinda stuck with me..."

"Odango..." He eyed her warily. "What is going on?" His voice sounded raspy to his ears.

Usagi's face was the only part of her that Mamoru could actually see, but he could tell that she fidgeted a few moments before answering him. "You... you were attacked. Do.. you remember?"

He blinked his eyes slowly once... twice... then he groaned and shut them completely. Memories flooded back into his mind. Something ominous and large swiping at him from behind... being knocked completely off his feet... his head crashing to the ground... blacking out... Usagi was saying something else. He tried to push the memories back to focus on her words.

"—youma was terrifying, it had you in its claws... it had to be the largest thing I've ever seen in my life. It was like a... snake dragon thing... then Sailor Moon and the Sailor Senshi came and killed it, and they entrusted my friends and I in your care..."

Mamoru found his heart racing at the thought of Usagi in the middle of a youma battle with the senshi. "Why were you... why..." Mamoru took a deep breath. Why was it so strenuous just to talk?

"I was on my way home from school when I saw you." She answered his question without him having to complete it. He saw her shoulders rise and fall into a shrug, as if to say "I know you're too tired to really ask me anything proper, so I'm trying here."

"I see." He murmured. He winced when he felt a strong pain in his chest. "How... bad... is it?" He forced himself not to look at Usagi's face. He was terrified to know exactly what that youma had done to him while he had been knocked out. Zoicite was playing dirtier and dirtier... he had a horrible feeling that he had been targeted by the youma. What would have happened if Sailor Moon hadn't saved him?

Usagi let out a pent up breath of air. "It's actually not as bad as we first thought. There was just so much blood..." She rambled off for a second, and he could hear her choke. He winced. She was so young... she should have never seen any of that. For her to see him in this position was terrible in and of itself. "You've lost a lot of blood, but thankfully you seem to be slowly recovering..." She paused. "There are a lot of... gashes... everywhere..."

So that was where all the pain was coming from. "I see."

Usagi was gnawing on her lip. "Are you hungry?"

That was something he hadn't even thought of. "Not really." He stared up at the ceiling wearily. Not being able to move was really starting to bother him.

Usagi nodded slowly. It became extremely quiet for a long period of time while Usagi simply sat and Mamoru stared up at the ceiling, unsure of how to proceed. They were having a civil conversation, in one of the strangest predicaments ever. Mamoru frowned; he couldn't even remember if he and Usagi had really ever had a civil conversation before. It was... a little strange, a little awkward... and, he admitted, a little nice, without all the insults flying...

Mamoru felt Usagi slowly rising from the bed. He blinked and his eyes watched her. She mumbled an apology to him, something along the lines of "bothering you" that he didn't quite catch. Uncomfortably, she shuffled on her feet for a few seconds before heading out of the bedroom. She stopped at the doorway. "I'll... be in here if you need me... I just... you... you should rest. I'll... watch TV... "

He wished that he could turn his head without feeling that terrible pain again, but he really didn't want to risk it. Nodding was probably out of the question as well, but he felt a terrible pain in his chest, and he had a feeling that it wasn't from his injuries. He started to open his mouth to say something, to ask her not to leave, when the door was pulled halfway closed and he knew she was gone.

He sighed and closed his eyes, feeling his pain much more acutely now. Somehow, without her near, it was incredibly worse.

* * *

Usagi forced herself not to peek in and check on Mamoru every five seconds. She limited herself to checking on him every two minutes. But she tried very hard not to let him know that she was doing so... how annoyed would he be with _that_?

Sighing, the girl settled for wandering around the extremely clean, extremely un-decorated apartment in her spare not-checking-on-Mamoru time. TV was out of the question. She would never be able to concentrate on it in her current state.

At first, she found nothing of interest. A living room with absolutely nothing in it except the TV, couch, chairs, and the low wooden table where he probably had tea with guests or... whatever. She shrugged, forcing herself not to think of other girls he might have at the apartment. Then she wandered into the kitchen. Frowning, she exited just as quickly through the second entryway that led into the short hallway. A kitchen with so little food depressed her. The bathroom had already gotten a thorough inspection the night before. Then she noticed a door at the end of the short hallway that was between the kitchen and bathroom doors.

Curious, she went to it and opened it. Peeking in, the first thing she noticed were the walls. They were covered in bookshelves. Amazed, she pushed the door fully open and stepped inside. "Wow," she whispered, blinking rapidly. The room had a desk with a computer pressed against one bare space of wall, but the remaining walls had shelves from top to bottom. Most of the bookshelves were filled with books, but on the bookshelves surrounding the desk, roses of all colors sat in multicolored vases. The girl was too intrigued not to inspect them, so she stepped closer to the shelves and looked at the roses. Her eyes widened. The vases had labels on them. One vase, with a red rose, had a date on it: May 26th. She frowned. It was October. What did the date mean? She looked at some of the other vases. There were random dates on all of the vases.

"Very strange," she muttered, turning away from the shelves. She walked along the other bookshelves for a moment, seeing that they were mostly medical texts and classic literature books that Mamoru probably liked. She ended up at the desk again, and she looked down at it. It was perfectly ordered, just like everything else, but it had a single book out of place. She picked it up. It was leather bound, but it had no title. She frowned and opened it, flipping over a few pages. Then she noticed it was handwritten, with dates at the top of the pages. She blushed and dropped it back on the desk. It was obviously a private notebook of Mamoru's. A journal? She bit her lip and quickly exited the room, feeling like she was definitely spying on him now.

* * *

After what seemed like an eternity, Usagi re-entered Mamoru's room and sat on the bed beside him again. He hadn't fallen back asleep, and he felt absolutely miserable, being unable to move or do anything except stare at the ceiling. And oh god, what was going to happen when he had to go to the bathroom...? He winced at the thought and pushed it back in his thoughts.

"Nothing on?" He asked when she sat down.

He saw her frown. She had a thermometer in her hand. "On?"

"You said you were going to watch TV, but I never heard you turn it on." He narrowed his eyes. Well, at least he could do that without eliciting insurmountable pain.

She blushed a pretty shade of pink and cleared her throat. "I didn't really feel like watching TV."

"What did you do?" He asked warily.

"I wandered around your boring kitchen."

"Thanks." He sighed, rolling his eyes.

"Don't you buy food, Mamoru-baka?"

"I eat takeout a lot. I don't really have time for cooking much..." He felt a smile tugging at his lips. "You would inspect my kitchen, Odango. I'm sure whatever food I had is now in your vacuum of a stomach?" He couldn't help himself. Reverting back into their teasing was just so much easier.

She clenched her teeth and tried not to fire back an insult _He's in pain, he's in pain,_ she reminded herself. _Remember that you love him, even when he is being an asshole. _"Very funny, Mamoru-baka," she managed. Rolling her eyes, she glared at him. "I need to check your temperature. Ami said to at least twice a day."

This would be a moment that he would shrug his shoulders, but he refrained. "Alright." He started to open his mouth, but then he stopped and glared at her when she got close. She blinked and backed away at his angry look.

She looked anxious. "What? What's wrong?"

"Don't do that again."

"Do what?" She scrunched her brow at his intense, vulnerable look.

"Leave me here alone." Muttering, he looked away from her.

Usagi turned bright pink, blinking repeatedly. "W-what?"

"I can't move well, remember? You're kinda my only source of entertainment, Odango." His eyes shifted back to hers with a gleam of sarcasm.

The girl stared at him as if he had grown wings. "You _want_ me around?"

"It's you or the ceiling."

"How flattering." She rolled her eyes. Yes, he was certainly still Mamoru-baka, in pain or not. His asshole side was starting to really show through.

"Sorry..." Suddenly he sounded nervous, and Usagi looked down at him. He was staring up at the ceiling, away from her. His face was red, and not from the cuts. She blinked, watching the different emotions playing across his face. She hadn't really ever seen Mamoru nervous before. He was usually so calmly confident, something that she adored about him. She couldn't help but find the nervousness adorable as well. He peered at her for a long moment, and then he spoke as if he had just made a huge decision. "I should probably refrain from teasing you, shouldn't I?"

Usagi raised both eyebrows. "You're actually offering to be nice to me?"

He narrowed his eyes. "A temporary truce." He stressed on the word 'temporary'. "Just for now. Deal?"

"Alright..." She started. Then she paused. "Wait! Right after this!" Usagi tilted her head from side to side. "Oh, look what I can do."

"Now that was just cruel." He felt his lips tugging into a smile.

"Sorry. I just couldn't resist. Okay, now we can have a truce." She winked at him and leaned down, sticking the thermometer in his mouth when he started to retort.

It was silent as Mamoru sat with the thermometer in his mouth, but Usagi smiled to herself, finding it a lot less awkward than she had before.

It was a few moments later when the electronic thermometer began beeping. Usagi reached over and took it from Mamoru, who sighed in relief and closed his eyes. Usagi glanced out of the corner of her eye at him. He was so pale... even their conversation had seemingly tired him out.

She swallowed a lump in her throat and looked back to the thermometer. She sighed in relief. "Oh good. At least you're not too cold..." It was several degrees under normal, but it had risen from what Ami had told it was the night before. Her Mercury computer was probably a lot more accurate, though. Usagi glanced at Mamoru's bedside alarm clock. It was still early; they had a long afternoon ahead before Ami would come by.

She started to say something else to him, but when she turned her head away from the alarm clock to look at him, she saw that his eyes were closed and his breaths had become slow and even again. She smiled softly, rising from the bed so that he could rest.

* * *

Usagi looked up from the TV when someone knocked lightly on the door. She stretched, wondering how long she had been sitting there. She had been staring into space for quite a while, her thoughts mostly involving Mamoru and their recent, strange, and extremely civil truce. She glanced at the TV, wondering how on Earth she had let it end up on infomercials about some sort of rice strainers...

Stretching her limbs as she walked to the door, she opened it to a frazzled looking Motoki, his dark blonde hair sticking out while his khaki pants and white shirt were rumpled. "Motoki-kun," she looked over his attire curiously. "Hi."

The man in front of her blinked repeatedly, rubbed his light green eyes with his fists, blinked some more, and then dropped his jaw. "U-U-Usagi-chan?!"

Usagi let her lips fall into a flat line. "...yes, that's my name, Motoki-kun. Breathe."

"What are you doing here?! You do realize this is Mamoru's apartment, right?" Motoki burst through the door, whipping his head from side to side. "Where is Mamoru?!"

"Calm down, Motoki-kun.." Usagi pleaded, reaching a hand out to try and take Motoki's arm, but the man was moving frantically about the living room, pacing. Usagi dropped her arm and sighed. "Mamoru's in his bedroom, but... no, Motoki-kun! Don't!" She raced after him when he started to rush into Mamoru's room and plowed straight into his back when he stopped, frozen, at the open doorway.

A startled gasp elicited from the blonde man, and he jerked around, grabbing Usagi by the arm and yanking her back out into the living room. Dropping her arm, he stared at her for a long moment, his jaw open wide and a horrified look on his usually happy face. "Oh my god."

Usagi winced and nodded, sitting on the back of the couch and crossing her arms. "I know."

"What... oh god, what happened to him?" His eyes drifted back toward the door. Mamoru was still sleeping, pale as a ghost, in the next room. The startling red of the cuts stood out so terrifyingly against his skin. Motoki cringed, peeling his eyes away from the door.

Usagi sighed and uncrossed her arms, gripping the back of the sofa with both hands. "It was a youma attack."

"A youma?" Motoki's lightly freckled face blanched.

"The senshi killed it," Usagi reassured him. "It had Mamoru-san in its grip. It... hurt him.." She looked up into Motoki's baffled eyes. "The senshi asked me to take care of him."

Motoki nodded numbly. "I... I was... I was just going to talk to him about..." He winced. "Reika and I got in a fight, I haven't slept, but..." He didn't continue. He sighed and shook his head. He strode over to one of the armchairs and sat down, leading his head back in the seat.

"Puts everything in perspective, doesn't it?" Usagi murmured, crossing over to sit on the couch. "I don't think I've ever been more terrified in my life than when I saw him in that youma's hands..."

Motoki's head snapped up and he stared at Usagi with wide eyes. "You were _there_?"

Usagi nodded, wincing.

"Damn." Motoki leaned up and rested his elbows on his knees. "What can I do? How can I help?" He looked at Usagi with pleading eyes.

Usagi pursed her lips. "Well... there is, um..." She blushed when her stomach growled. "Mamoru-san doesn't exactly buy food."

Motoki blinked for a moment, and then he started laughing lightly. "Alright. I can definitely help out with that."

"Ami-chan is coming by later to check on him." The blonde girl said, biting her lips. "But, um... we're... girls." She looked up at him expectantly. "If we need your help with anything that, uh..."

"Say no more," Motoki chuckled, shaking his head. "I owe Mamoru-kun a lot."

Usagi scrunched her brow. "You do?"

Motoki smiled, nodding. "Ask him sometime." He paused. "I don't get why, though... Usagi-chan, why are _you_ taking care of Mamoru-kun? Wouldn't a hospital be better?"

"The senshi said they didn't want people to panic because of a youma attack."

Motoki pursed his lips. "I see. But... _you_? I mean... you and Mamoru... surely someone else..." He trailed off, looking at her expectantly.

Usagi sighed and leaned back into the couch, blushing. "Motoki-kun, can I tell you something? You can't tell anyone.... _anyone_." Motoki nodded, his green eyes widening. Usagi frowned and looked away. "Well... I..."

A strangled sound came from Mamoru's bedroom. Usagi stopped and whipped her head to the side. It happened again, and she jumped to her feet, fear washing over her. She dashed into the bedroom and her eyes sought out Mamoru. She gasped.

He was shaking, his face red and splintered in pain. He gazed at Usagi with terrified eyes, and his body continued to quake. He was halfway sitting up, and even from the doorway, Usagi could see the pulse beating erratically in his throat. He tried to lift an arm, reaching toward her, even though the pain was riping through every part of him. Her heart pulsing wildly, she rushed to him and dropped on the bed, wrapping her fingers through his and holding them tightly.

"Mamoru-san?! Mamoru, hold on... breathe, what's wrong? Breathe, Mamoru, breathe..."

His eyes stared away from her, as if he was seeing something from far away. He took in deep breaths of air. Usagi's eyes swept down his face and stopped at his neck. The cuts were glowing a bright red, and as she watched, they flared brighter and brighter for a few moments before the bright glowing suddenly stopped. Gasping, her other hand flew to her mouth in shock. She had never seen anything like it, but what did it mean?

Finally, as the bright glowing went away, the pain seemed to ease and Mamoru's shaking stopped. He fell back onto the bed in a heap of shivering, cold sweat. "Usagi.." he whispered, his eyes glazed over with weakness. "Usagi.." His eyes closed and he started to shiver.

Usagi reached for his other hand, her arms now on both sides of him. Motoki stood, dumbfounded, in the doorway, shaking slightly in fear at the sight he had just seen.

"Mamoru? Mamoru, are you okay?" She whispered, her voice trembling. With one hand, she sunk her fingers into his hair, pushing the strands back from his sweating face. "Mamoru..."

He continued to shiver, and she pulled the blankets around him higher up. Turning to Motoki, she asked hoarsely, "Could you see if he has any other blankets anywhere? He's freezing."

Motoki nodded numbly and forced himself to enter the room. He started opening drawers in Mamoru's dresser. Finding a thick blanket in the bottom drawer, he pulled it out and stiffly handed it to Usagi, his face pale and eyes wide. Usagi tried to give him a reassuring smile, but even she knew that it came out as a fearful grimace. Standing, she took the blanket and gently laid it over the shivering Mamoru, hoping that his closed eyes meant he was sleeping. His breath was too strained for her to really tell at all.

Sitting down again and resting one hand on Mamoru's other side, Usagi stroked the other quivering hand against his pallid cheek, gnawing in frustration on her lip. Ami couldn't get there soon enough. Something was extremely wrong. What had that youma done to him?

* * *

End Chapter Two


	3. Chapter 3

Is It Wrong To Thank the Youma?  
Chapter Three

* * *

Usagi sat in the chair beside Mamoru's bed staring down at his still form, biting nervously on the nail of her thumb. Motoki had left over an hour before, saying that he would be back with food soon. She had nodded, but she was back in the state of perpetual fear that left her almost completely numb to anyone else around her.

Mamoru was sleeping, but he was back to the strained breathing again. Usagi groaned and leaned down, burying her face in her hands. He had been getting a little better... but where was he now? Was he worse?

Usagi peeked through her fingers at the clock. It was getting close to three, thankfully. She hoped beyond hope that Ami didn't have cram school.

* * *

Ami knocked timidly on Mamoru's apartment door. It was a little after three, and she glanced down at her wristwatch. She had a little over an hour before she had to be at cram school.

The door was wrenched open, and Ami's eyes widened at the pale face of Usagi.

"Usagi-chan!"

"Ami-chan, he's worse," Usagi choked, taking her friend's arm and pulling her into the apartment before shutting the door.

Ami wasted no time. She dropped her book bag, took out her Mercury computer, and strode into the bedroom. She sat on the bedside, where Usagi usually sat. Usagi took the chair, leaning forward with her elbows resting on her knees, her arms stretched forward to touch Mamoru's bare arm softly.

Ami tapped at her computer for a few silent moments as she programmed it to scan Mamoru's vitals. When it scanned him, her blue eyebrows furrowed together and a deep frown encased her usually light features. She could see Usagi staring at her out of the corner of her eye. She cleared her throat nervously and turned her head to look Usagi in the eye. She took in a deep breath. "Mamoru's been poisoned."

"Poisoned?!" Usagi squeaked, her blue eyes becoming wide saucers.

Ami nodded, looking back down at her computer. "The youma apparently had venom in its talons. It was a slow acting poison; that's why I didn't notice it at all yesterday."

"What do we do?" The blonde whispered, turning her head to look down at Mamoru.

Ami sighed, her small frame shaking with the deepness of the sigh. "To be honest, at this moment, I don't know. It's..." She gulped at Usagi's head turning toward her with an intense stare. "It's draining his energy away, what's left of it." Usagi started to breathe shakily, but Ami reached out and placed a firm hand on her fore arm, squeezing it. "Do not panic, Usagi-chan! Don't do it! You are no help to Mamoru if you freak out on me now. So just calm down and listen. I am going to do my best; we will find out how to take the poison out."

Usagi nodded numbly, calming her breaths.

The blue haired genius stood up. "I'm going to run home and see what medical texts I can find about poisons, okay? The computer's showing me a formula that I've never seen before; it might even be that this poison was unique to that youma. But I need to study more before I can do anything."

Usagi waved her hand dismissively, her eyes focused on Mamoru. "I don't see why you would need to go home; you should just go in Mamoru's study. He's got tons of medical books and stuff back there."

Ami's eyes widened, and she glanced at Mamoru with appreciative eyes. "He does?" She cleared her throat. "Well, I'll go see what he has."

"Back room past the bathroom," Usagi said as Ami walked out of the bedroom. Usagi sighed, rubbing Mamoru's cold hand with hers.

* * *

When Motoki returned with bags full of groceries, it was Ami who let him inside. Usagi couldn't be bothered to move from Mamoru's side. The blue haired girl smiled at the blonde man (who had, by this time, combed his hair and straighted his clothes... and, he had even called Reika and apologized profusely for their fight... the origins of which, he had seemingly forgotten....).

"Motoki-kun, are you feeding an army?" Ami marveled at the many bags the man was juggling as he stumbled through the entryway. He shuffled into the kitchen and dropped the bags on the counter, relieved.

"Not an army: Usagi-chan." Motoki gave Ami a knowing look, who simply made an "o" with her lips. She shook her head, laughing lightly, before pushing her reading glasses up on her nose and going back to her place on the couch. She buried her head back in the book.

Motoki looked over her shoulder at the text. "Poisons? You think Mamoru-kun is poisoned?"

Ami nodded, wincing. "I'm afraid so."

Motoki looked toward the bedroom door. "Usagi-chan...?"

"With Mamoru-san."

"Ah." Motoki settled into an armchair. "She doesn't really leave his side much, does she?"

Ami shook her head absently, her head pouring over the text. She had missed cram school; how was she ever going to live it down? But she had to find the answer to help Mamoru.

"She's in love with him. I always suspected," Motoki murmured to himself mostly, but Ami had heard.

She raised her head from the book and gave him an odd look. "We all know, except Usagi-chan of course, that Mamoru-san is in love with her... but Usagi-chan? In love with Mamoru-san?"

Motoki shrugged. "Perhaps you don't see it because you're so close to her that you're blind to it, but... I can see it."

Ami blinked slowly, repeatedly. Then her eyes drifted back to the book. "Oh my god, that's it."

Motoki raised an eyebrow. "What's it? What's what?"

"We're too close to it." She whispered. "I keep trying to find out what's wrong with Mamoru-san, but that's not the issue. The youma is the issue!" She slammed the book closed and rushed into the bedroom. She closed the door behind her so that Motoki wouldn't follow her, and she dropped to her knees beside Usagi, who was sitting at Mamoru's side, her hands holding his.

The blonde girl looked at Ami's hopeful face and her face lightened. "Ami-chan?"

"It's not Mamoru, Usagi-chan," the blue hair girl whispered, careful to keep her voice low so that Motoki wouldn't overhear. "It's the youma, I'm sure of it. You couldn't kill it with the Moon Tiara, remember? Mars' fire and Jupiter's lightning seemed to work, didn't they?"

"I don't understand, Ami-chan. Do you want to scorch Mamo-chan?" Usagi squeaked. "There is no way!"

"Mamo-chan?" Ami raised her eyebrows. She shook her head. "Never mind, there's no time for that. And no, that's not what I'm saying. I'm saying, that youma wasn't killed. It ran. You said its arm sliced off, and then it regenerated, right?"

Usagi gasped. "The youma regenerated!"

"Right, and as long as that youma lives..."

"Then the poison it left in Mamoru-san will as well." Usagi squeezed Mamoru's hand instinctively.

"And it will continue to drain his energy until he dies." Ami whispered. "We have to go after that youma. We have to find it."

"This has to be Zoicite's doing," Usagi whispered as well. "But why? Why would Zoicite use such a youma on _Mamoru_? On one man? The enemy usually goes after many people at once! This one seemed to target just Mamoru. Mamoru would have changed into a youma if he had a rainbow crystal. But that youma..."

"That youma was not one created from someone with a rainbow crystal." Ami shook her head, flipping open her Mercury computer. "I have no idea about Mamoru being targeted, Usagi-chan. It does seem very strange. But it doesn't matter right now; what matters is that we find that youma. The other senshi and I will go back to the place where we thought it was defeated tonight and try to find clues."

Usagi glanced at Mamoru worriedly.

"You can stay here with Mamoru-san, Usagi-chan..." Ami said soothingly. "He's going to need you when he wakes up. I don't know how that poison works... he may be in a lot of pain."

"But... I should be with you all... I want to fight that thing, to make it pay for what it's done to him..." Her eyes left Mamoru's face, and she grew pale as she looked at Ami. "It's killing him, when it's the one that should die."

"And we will kill it. But you would be no good in a fight right now, not when your mind is obviously so preoccupied." She nodded her head toward Mamoru. "By the way, Motoki-san brought up an interesting point a minute ago..."

Usagi blinked. "What's that?"

"Are you in love with Mamoru-san?"

Usagi gasped and pulled her hand away from Mamoru, as if trying to defend herself. "I... well... I..."

Ami felt a smile tugging at her lips. "Don't worry, Usagi-chan. I won't tell the others. But you can't really hide it anymore."

Usagi blushed and covered her face with her hands. "Is it that obvious?"

"Glaringly so." Ami shrugged. "Especially if you keep calling him Mamo-chan."

Usagi groaned. "It slipped."

Ami smiled, genuinely. She stood up and placed a sisterly kiss on Usagi's forehead. "Don't worry. We'll find that youma and take care of it. You stay here and take care of Mamoru and yourself." She gave Usagi one more confident smile before leaving the room.

She nodded her head toward Motoki, who stared at her oddly as she left the apartment.

* * *

One thing Mamoru absolutely hated was eavesdropping. He hated it. Loathed it. He thought that if you didn't belong in a conversation, then you should definitely keep your nose and your ears completely out of it. He respected people's privacy, and he knew it was an extremely essential part of life.

So it was extremely annoying when he was the one eavesdropping against his will. His eyes just would not open, though. He was so extremely tired, and his eyes felt like they permanently glued shut, because no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't make them open.

So he just laid there while Ami and Usagi discussed.... _him_.

But what was really confusing was the fact that they kept talking about youma, Zoicite, and fighting. Mars. Jupiter. Senshi names? Sailor Mars and Sailor Jupiter? And what the hell was that about Usagi wanting to fight? What the hell was going on? How did Usagi and Ami even know about Zoicite?

And then, to add even more fire to the pit of his torment, he had overheard something he knew he was absolutely, 100 percent sure he was not supposed to hear! Usagi... in love with him? It was insane, ludicrous, absolutely impossible... that she loved him, too? But it wasn't impossible, it was apparently true.

But this was definitely not the way he wanted to find that out.

He absolutely hated eavesdropping.

* * *

Motoki checked on Usagi and Mamoru once more before saying he would be back in the morning to check on things. Usagi nodded, hugging him briefly and thanking him for the food, before shutting the door behind him. She sighed and glanced out the wide windows of Mamoru's apartment at the darkening sky. She couldn't see the sun setting, because the rain was still coming down and the dark clouds were blocking the sunlight. Then she blinked, because she noticed for the first time that the windows were actually sliding glass doors that led out onto a balcony.

"Goes to show how observant I am," she muttered, before turning and walking into the kitchen. She opened the refrigerator and felt relief when she saw all the food piled inside. Hoping, she opened the freezer. "Oh, thank god," she moaned, grabbing out a container of ice cream. (Out of the kindness of his heart, Motoki had bought four pints of ice cream.) Grabbing a spoon, she leaned against the counter to sink into the goodness.

* * *

Usagi quickly finished off the entire container of ice cream. When she finished, she found herself wandering into Mamoru's study again. Ami had apparently found the medical texts she had been wanting when she was in here previously, but Usagi wasn't even slightly interested in the books.

Well, except maybe one.

She bit her lip frustratingly, gazing down at Mamoru's journal. She shuffled on her feet, rocking back and forth as she tried to decide just how wrong it would be just to take a peek inside.

She was just so curious. She couldn't help it. She was always doing it at school; any little bit of gossip, and she just had to lean over and try to hear the rest. But now.... wasn't this like the ultimate form of spying? Reading someone's journal? Sure, eavesdropping was one thing. It was innocent, right? Especially when they were sitting right next to you or something and you just couldn't help but hear it.

But reading someone's journal... especially when it was someone you really, really cared about... Usagi bit her lip. She didn't really have a way to justify this, did she? Rei was always warning her that her curiosity and eavesdropping were going to get her in serious trouble one day. It was one of her most terrible weaknesses.

Okay, she knew it. She was absolutely, 100 percent sure that she was definitely crossing a line when she picked up Mamoru's journal. And when she flipped past the first few empty pages. And started reading.

But.... she was just so _curious_.

* * *

End Chapter Three

Teehee... I just had to. :) This is getting to be so much funnnn...


	4. Chapter 4

Is It Wrong to Thank the Youma?  
Chapter Four

* * *

Mamoru slowly opened his eyes, finally. Sighing, he stared again at the ceiling, happy to be able to see something other than the back of his eyelids. He had no idea how long he had actually been partially awake, but he was so tired of darkness...

His head was finally clearing, and he was able to think. Was that just a dream? Had he really heard what sounded like Usagi confessing that she loved him? Or did he just make that up in his own head, his own want of it?

This was one of the many reasons he despised eavesdropping. Translations got lost along the way and often things were mixed up and misunderstood. This was of too much importance to his heart for him to misunderstand. It meant everything to him. He had loved Usagi for as long as he could remember. As long as he'd known her, something about her had drawn him to her. It was her charm, her kindness, or her vivacity, he thought. Or the fact that when she was angry, her face would scrunch up and her blue eyes would flame and she would get this incredibly adorable expression across her face like he'd never seen before. It was _her_. She was everything he wasn't: light, happy, always smiling, and laughing; she made him smile, made him laugh, and made him ache when he wasn't near her.

But of course, the fact that five years separated them in their ages, and the fact that he had thought she hated him desperately, had kept him from ever approaching her. Of course, he knew it was his own fault for making fun of her... but it was his only way of knowing how to communicate with her at all. Apparently, he had missed the memo where you were supposed to be extremely charming to the girl you were infatuated with. He could be charming to just about every other girl on the planet... except her.

Which was infuriating, of course. But sometimes, she did infuriate him. And maybe that was one of the reasons he loved her so much... because unlike any other girl, she elicited emotions out of him. She made him feel all sorts of emotions that he usually tried to keep down.

He sighed. He despised her seeing him like this, but was grateful that she was here. She would be the only person he would ache for and want. He smiled at the thought of their 'temporary truce'. What would she think if he extended that truce?

He heard the door opening. He turned his head slightly, hissing when the pain of his neck hit him, but he found that despite the pain, he could move it. Perhaps that horrible, painful experience earlier had left him able to manage lesser pain. It wasn't really much comfort in comparison. He'd never felt so much pain in his entire life. It had felt like his entire body was completely on fire, like everything in him was ripping apart; he winced and stopped thinking about it.

Usagi stood in the doorway, her face extremely red as she poked her head in. Her eyes were wide and luminous, as if she had seriously just seen a ghost.

"Usagi?"

She jumped when she noticed that he was awake. "Mamo-c—Mamoru-san!" Stumbling around the door, she shuffled across the room and dropped down into the chair at his bedside, her face still bright pink and her eyes taking him in as if she'd never seen him before. "I-I didn't know you were awake."

He decided to spare her the details of his being awake for a very long time. He smiled lightly. "Only for a little while. Are you okay?" He gazed at her, wondering why she was blushing.

She nodded her head frantically. "Oh, of course, of course! I should... be asking you that!" She giggled nervously, looking away from him. He frowned and started to say something, but Usagi cleared her throat and stood up. "Mamoru-san, are you hungry? You haven't eaten anything at all; perhaps you should, I'll go see what Motoki-kun brought that would be good for you to ea—"

"Motoki was here?" Mamoru interrupted, his eyes confused. He faintly remembered seeing Motoki behind Usagi during... he blocked the thoughts again. "Oh, I remember..." He sighed. "Poor Motoki-kun, he shouldn't have been here..." He looked at her. "_You_ shouldn't have been here. I'm sorry."

Usagi scrunched her brow, her blush receding as she lowered herself back down into the chair. She suddenly reached out and took one of his hands, as if it was a reflex. "You don't mean that, do you? Mamo-chan, you couldn't have wanted to have been alone during that!" The words rushed out of her mouth and she gasped when she realized her error (that was apparently becoming more common as the day went on...).

"You keep calling me that," Mamoru murmured, his eyes focusing on hers. She blushed again and tried to look away, except that he squeezed her hand, causing her to look back at him. "You've said it several times now."

She frowned deeply. "You.. you heard me?"

"I did." He opened his mouth to say something else, but changed his mind, fear getting the better part of him. "Do... you think you could help me sit up?"

She was not expecting that, but she looked grateful for his change of subject. Then her brow furrowed and she looked worried. "I don't know... it causes you so much pain to move..."

"Please," he pleaded, pulling her hand with his. "After what happened earlier, I can take it. I'm just extremely tired of falling asleep," he smirked. "As much of a paradox as that is."

"A para what?" The blonde looked confused.

He rolled his eyes lightly. "Never mind that." He tugged on her hand again. "Please, Usako?"

Usagi's eyes suddenly turned into wide saucers that could have rivaled dinner plates. "Usako?" She squeaked, thinking about the meaning of the nickname.

"It only seems fair... if you keep calling me Mamo-chan, that is." He looked up at her with calm, serious eyes, but inside he was churning a bit. The name had been spinning in his head for a while, but he never thought he would ever actually get to say it out loud... would she laugh? Scream? Run away? He was fully intent on his mindless daydream of Usagi laughing hysterically at him while backing out of the room at a high speed when suddenly her slender, cool arms were wrapping around him. He gasped and looked up. She was sitting on the side of the bed, her arms wrapped securely around his waist.

"Do you want to sit up or not?" She looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

He smiled. She was allowing it, the nickname. She smiled back at him shyly, and he lifted one arm painfully to grasp onto her waist. He nodded once, taking a deep breath as he pushed himself up and allowed her to help him raise up.

The pain flooded him immediately. He cried out in pure agony, shutting his eyes and gasping for breath as he felt his head spinning. The burning feeling was back, rushing through all of his limbs as he moved. He groaned and his head sank against the pillows that Usagi had propped up behind him. He sat still for several long moments, simply breathing and trying to calm the pain. It slowly receded, making it easier for him to breathe and think coherently. When he opened his eyes to look at her, Usagi was staring at him with worry in her cerulean eyes, sitting much closer to him than she had been before. He smiled when he realized why. She was able to sit closer, because he was sitting up as planned.

She took a calming breath and wiped her brow with the back of one hand before crossing her limbs across her chest. "You seriously are trying to kill me."

He chuckled lightly, wincing when his chest heaved. "I'm sorry."

She shrugged and looked away. "I'm hungry. Do you want anything yet?"

"Wow, I'm surprised... is there actually food left?" He raised an eyebrow, and she turned to him with a piercing stare.

"You said no insults!"

"Oops. It's a really hard habit to break," He flinched at her harsh stare. "I'm trying here." She continued to give him a dirty glare, and he sighed. "Really, I am. It's... it's just instinct, like..." He paused, glancing at her. Her face was softening, and she was gazing at him, waiting for him to continue. He didn't really want to, but he saw that he really had no other choice. He leaned his head back into the pillows, wincing with the movement. "I don't mean to insult you; it's just the only way I know how to..." He stopped, his face growing red. His eyes shifted away from her.

She was holding her breath, and she inched closer to him. "How to what?" She whispered, her hand itching to grasp onto his but refraining.

He sighed and refused to look back at her. He closed his eyes, feeling tired again."How to... I just don't know any other way of talking to you, Usako. It's my only excuse, as lousy as it is. I'm sorry." His eyes remained closed, and Usagi didn't say anything... not that she really had any idea what to say.

She tried to open her mouth to say something when she realized that his breathing had evened out again, and she blinked. He was asleep again already? So much for his plan of sitting up to stop sleep. Chewing on her lip lightly (her poor lips had been so abused today...), she reached out and placed her hand on his, caressing the back of his hand with her thumb.

Mamoru teased her endlessly... so that he could talk to her? She sighed, and her mind wandered away from the man sleeping to the book sitting on his desk. She had barely gotten past a few pages, but it had been enough. Her eyes drifted away to stare away at nothing in particular as she thought back on the journal entry she had read. She had no idea what to do now, what to tell the others...

Her eyes shifted back to Mamoru, and for the first time, she could actually see it. She could tell, finally. The dark hair, the blue eyes, the shape of his chin and neck, his height...... they were exactly the same.

Mamoru really was Tuxedo Kamen.

She had flipped open the book expecting recounts of his days in class. She had been hoping to make sure that no girl was mentioned; she blushed when she realized that she was mentioned a lot. Or... not really her, but her other half. Sailor Moon.

Usagi slipped her hand away from Mamoru's to leave the room again, finding that she had to read that first entry again. She was still baffled beyond words, and she had no idea how to talk to Mamoru about it, if she should talk to him about it, or what to tell the other senshi. Would they think her an idiot for wanting to tell Mamoru who she was? Or that she knew he was Tuxedo Kamen? The man that fought alongside her every day?

She stopped, her hand on the doorknob. It was sort of nice, knowing that they were one and the same: the man that intrigued and attracted her to no end and the one she knew she was in love with. Sort of. Mostly it was just confusing.

She slipped into the room and sunk down into his desk chair, grabbing out the journal and flipping to the entry. Taking a deep, calming breath, she began to re-read the entry more carefully than she had before.

_I thought this might be a way to sort out my thoughts. Motoki is always saying that writing things down helps him, so perhaps it will be beneficial for me as well. He's noticed, I think. That something is different. I don't know how to tell him, or really I don't think I should. _

_It still scares me, every time. I feel my heart tug when I know Sailor Moon is in danger, and I know I can't stop it, that I have to go, I have to help her. At least I finally know what's happening when it does. At least now I can finally control the transformation. Waking up somewhere without any idea what just happened was a real pain in the ass. _

_Why are there three women in my life that torment me? Isn't one enough? First... well, there's her. But I won't go into that, because that's just too confusing. But then there's Sailor Moon. She's lovely and a lot braver than she thinks she is, but she really does need to listen to her senshi more... it would cause me a lot less trouble if she would just not get herself in so much trouble. When they say run, run. When they say get out of the way, don't just stand there like stone! I swear, if not for me saving her at the last minute, she would be dead fifty times over by now. I feel like a father, as wrong as that sounds, the way I want to scold her. But it's just because I have this... feeling. Like it's my job to protect her, and she's not really helping to take care of herself any. So it's making it really difficult on me._

_Then there's the girl in my dream. She just confuses me. What's the point? Why keep telling me you need the Ginzuishou when I don't even know who you are? Even though, that's the thing. That's what's killing me about her. I do feel like I know who she is. I just can't... I can't grasp it. I know her, from somewhere. I just don't know where or why or how. I can't see her face, ever... I just see this outline of this girl and I know she's beautiful, even though I can't see her. See what I mean? I'm telling you, I do know her. I just haven't got a clue how. _

_I'm rambling and repeating myself a lot, but I guess Motoki's kind of right. Writing it down does help. Now maybe I'll be able to sleep tonight. I will probably have the dream again, as I always do... but there really isn't much I can do about that. _

_Mamoru_

Usagi flipped over a page, looking at the next entry. She glanced at the date and noticed it was several weeks after the first entry. She pursed her lips, feeling extremely guilty, and read.

_I ran into Usako again yesterday. Oh... I guess I haven't mentioned her, have I? Well, she's her. The girl I couldn't exactly talk about in the last entry. Hey, when you're as mixed up as I am, you can only take so much at a time. So sue me. Anyways, I did run into her... her and her friend Makoto. I think I'm going to have a bruise where Makoto kind of... okay, never mind, she really choked the life outta me. That girl is freakishly strong. _

_Anyways, they were going to the arcade to see Motoki, again, and I butted in. Oh come on, I had to. Usako's crazy about Motoki, and it's driving me insane. Literally. Insane. And he has a girlfriend! Reika and Motoki are so together that I wouldn't be surprised if they get engaged when she comes back from Africa. Ack, enough about them. So I sort of burst Usako's bubble when I told her about Motoki and Reika, but... well, she did have to know, right?? Even if I know it was really, really smug of me to gloat at the look on her face. It was heartbreaking and worth it at the same time. Heartbreaking in that she seriously looked like she thought I was a demon from hell, but really worth it in that maybe, just maybe, with Motoki known to be completely off limits, she'll stop mooning over him so much and let someone else have a chance. _

_Ah, the irony of it is that I say that while knowing that I'll never have a chance. Especially if I keep pissing her off the way I'm going. But I can't help it. Really, I can't. I tried to stop. I tried to be nice to her one day, and she looked at me like I had just turned into a frog before her lovely eyes. It's just so much easier to talk to her if she's angry at me! And I don't know why. But it is._

_Sailor Moon and I had an interesting discussion last night, in any case. She apparently found the locket. Not that I know what the locket is or where it came from... it's just always in my pocket when I transform. I apparently dropped it sometime ago. But she found it, and for some reason, I'm glad she has it. _

_She asked me if I would give her my rainbow crystals though, which... well, that was very naive of her, as sweet as she is. I have to have the rainbow crystals, even if it means that I have to take the one the senshi have by force.... as disgusting as that makes me feel._

_Zoicite's really starting to get on my nerves though. Have I mentioned Zoicite? He's this extremely pissy girlish guy thing... whatever the hell he is. Anyways, he and I are battling for the rainbow crystals. But I need them, and he's really pissing me off. I have to figure out that dream, I have to figure out if that girl in my dream can help me remember my past... and I have a feeling the crystals have something to do with that. So Zoicite? Yeah, he is really, really pissing me off. _

_It's getting close to three. Usako will be out of school soon. And Motoki is working today, I think. So I think I'll stop by the arcade for a bit... oh who am I kidding, I'm going to start running here in a minute. Just wait and see._

_Yes. Lame. I know._

_Mamoru_

Usagi choked, dropping the book in her lap. She started trembling and flipped the journal page to see that there were no more new entries. He had apparently abandoned the journal or had gotten busy. She tried to think. It had been a few weeks since Reika's rainbow crystal had been taken. So this entry was several weeks old.

"Oh god," she whispered, tears suddenly pooling in her eyes. She pressed four fingers to her lips, her mind whirling. The way Mamoru talked about her in the entry... he didn't even call her Usagi... not even Odango! Just Usako.

Her hands trembling, she dropped the journal back on the desk and forced herself to leave the room. She poked her head in Mamoru's bedroom and saw that he was still asleep. Standing still, she simply gazed at him for a long time. He was still as he slept, even sitting up halfway like he was.

Did Mamoru have feelings for her?

"How can that even be possible," she whispered to herself, her hand wringing on the doorknob.

* * *

End Chapter Four

Thought I would leave this chapter without a terrible cliffhanger... er, well, I don't guess that's too terrible of a cliffhanger, is it? Lol. Well, whether it is or not, I'll try to have the next chapter out very soon! Tomorrow is my day off class (the joys of college: scheduling a day in your week that you don't have to go to class) so I will try to dedicate some time to working on Chapter Five.

Oh, oh, and if any of you are interested, I'm starting to write drabbles for the 100 theme challenge. I'm really excited about it! I've finished my first one and am about to start writing my next one now, since I just finished this chapter. Please check out **Unforgettable Moments: 100 UsaxMamo Drabbles** if you get a chance!!! :)

And as always, pretty please leave me a review and let me know what you think!! Thank you all!!


	5. Chapter 5

Here's chapter five, finally! And a note: I try not to use Japanese words in my stories save for the names of people or places for accuracy purposes, but in some cases I feel it necessary. I won't use anything complicated or unknown to dedicated fans, though. Pretty simple terms. If you have any questions though, feel free to ask. If I use too many terms in the story, I'll list them at the end of chapters.

Is It Wrong To Thank The Youma?

* * *

Chapter Five

Tap tap tap. Tick. Tick. Tap tap tap tap tap.

Sailor Mars sighed from behind Sailor Mercury, who was busily clinking information into her small Mercury computer. The fire senshi was sort of relieved that Sailor Moon wasn't around; she fidgeted freely, boredom taking over. She could never relax around Sailor Moon, because being compared to the whiny senshi wouldn't be fun.

Sailor Venus and Sailor Jupiter had been walking the entire site. The road where the youma had previously tried to kill Mamoru was dark, with only one streetlight blinking dismally in the distance. The blonde and brunette senshi joined Mars and Mercury, both of them shaking their heads.

"There's nothing. No youma presence at all." Sailor Venus said, shrugging her shoulders. Mars looked at Sailor Jupiter, who had her green eyes turned toward the expanse of street in front of them.

"Sailor Jupiter?"

The thunder senshi turned to face Mars, the green jewel in her tiara lighting her face enough to make her expression visible. She looked horrified. "Venus is right, there's nothing here... except the broken road and Mamoru-san's blood."

Mercury stopped ticking at her computer. The three let their eyes join Jupiter's as they stared down the darkness to see a large, dark spot on the ground. Sailor Mars shuddered, remembering how Mamoru had looked when she, Jupiter, and Moon had run up earlier. And the terrified look on Sailor Moon's face. Mars winced.

Venus broke the silence. "What do we do, though? We can't find anything more."

"I wouldn't say that, Venus," Mercury mumbled, her eyes back to her computer. She raised one gloved hand to her mouth, tapping her fingertips to her lips. "It's very weak, but there is a link present."

"A link?" Venus looked over Mercury's shoulder at her computer, but she found it useless. She couldn't understand any of the symbols on the screen. Her eyes started swirling and she blinked repeatedly, backing away.

"A piece of the youma is left." Mercury answered. "It's minuscule, though. I'm trying to pinpoint its location now."

"If we have that piece of the youma..." Mars started.

"We can track the youma." Jupiter pounded her fist into her open palm. "Let's find the sucker and pulverize it!"

Mars and Venus giggled at Jupiter's enthusiasm; the tallest senshi was always up for a good heart-pounding battle. Mercury thoroughly ignored all three of them, her blue eyes darkened in on the small screen of her computer. She suddenly snapped her head up. "Got it!" She exclaimed, and she started rushing forward, her eyes not even looking at the road but at the computer. The other three senshi quickly ran behind her and watched as she dropped to her knees in front of a small patch of tall grass and weeds that stuck out of the sidewalk. The senshi raised their eyebrows at their blue-haired comrade. What good was grass going to do?

Sailor Mercury reached into her subspace pocket and produced a small specimen bag. The other senshi began blinking; did she come prepared for _anything_? They watched as Mercury scooped up a small bit of dirt, teaspoon size, and dropped it into the bag. She sealed the bag, stood, and whirled around to face the other senshi with a wide, satisfied smile. "Got it!"

"Mercury," Venus shuffled on her orange-heeled feet and wrung her hands in front of her. "What good is that dirt going to do? It's _dirt_."

Mercury sighed dramatically at her friends' lack of trust in her abilities. "When the youma was supposedly killed earlier, what did it do? It dissolved into dust. Most of the dust joined the youma again, wherever its location is now. But this bit got stuck in the weeds." She motioned to the empty road around them. "There's nothing else but road here. No more grass. We got lucky that this small patch was here."

"So that's a part of the youma!" Venus exclaimed, clapping her hands together. Jupiter grinned at her and shook her head, clapping a hand down on Venus' shoulder.

Mercury nodded. "Exactly. Perhaps a piece of its skin or... oh, I don't know, part of its nose. Who knows? But once I examine this, I'll input the data and we can use it to track the youma."

"Great," Mars breathed a sigh of relief, pushing a hand through her long, black hair. "And then we can kill this thing so Mamoru-san can stop suffering."

Sailor Mercury nodded her head empathetically, her lips pressing into a thin line. "Right."

* * *

It was close to nine o'clock when Usagi opened the door to Mamoru's apartment to see her four friends and fellow senshi standing there. Her grim, worried, and confused expression relaxed into one of love and comfort when she saw their smiling faces. "Minna," she breathed, rushing out the door and launching herself into Makoto's open arms. "I'm so glad you're all here."

Makoto patted Usagi on the back affectionately, smiling down at her with a heartwarming grin. "Usagi-chan.. daijoubou desu yo."

Usagi nodded and smiled up at the tall brunette, who pulled her back into the apartment. Minako closed the door behind them. Ami took a seat in one of the armchairs, Minako settled into the floor near Ami's feet, and the other girls all took the couch. Usagi looked at the faces of her friends for a long moment. "Did you find anything?" Ami showed Usagi the bag of dust, and Usagi raised an eyebrow. "That's just dirt."

Minako giggled. "That's what I said."

Ami shook her head with a patient smile and explained the situation, again, to Usagi. The blonde odangoed girl nodded her head, understanding. "Ohhhh, I see." She started bouncing on the sofa, suddenly excited. "So you can find the youma now, right? And we can help Mamo-chan!"

"Mamo-chan?!" Minako, Rei, and Makoto all exclaimed, their eyes widening.

Usagi cleared her throat and blushed, looking away. Ami shook her head sympathetically and saved Usagi from questions. "It's okay, Usagi-chan. I need a little time to examine this specimen, and then we can find the youma."

Usagi nodded and pointedly ignored the wide-mouthed gapes of her other friends, her attention solely on Ami. "Okay. Please let me go with you and help this time, when you can find the youma. I'll call Motoki-kun to watch Mamo-c—Mamoru-san, but I just have to help!"

Ami nodded, looking around at the other senshi. "Okay, Usagi-chan." She stood. "I'll get to work on this now. Plus you really look exhausted. You should get some rest."

Rei tilted her head and looked at Usagi's drawn face. "Is Mamoru-san not any better?"

Usagi sighed and leaned back into the sofa. "He is, but he isn't. He sleeps a lot, but at least he hasn't had another one of those painful attacks." She bit her lip. "Actually, minna... I have something... I should tell you all..." Ami sat back down, leaning forward in her chair. The others leaned forward as well, all their eyes glued to the blonde. Usagi sighed. "Mamoru-san is... ah..." She scratched her head. "Well, I think I may know why Mamoru-san was targeted by the youma."

"He was targeted?" Makoto raised an eyebrow.

Usagi nodded, wringing her hands in her lap uncomfortably. "Yes, I think so..." She cleared her throat. "Mamoru-san is... he's Tuxedo Kamen."

"EH?!" All four girls were suddenly on their feet, staring down at Usagi incredulously. The blonde simple nodded her head, wincing.

"That's why the youma was after him. He and Zoicite are battling over the rainbow crystals, because he wants them to remember his past." Usagi couldn't stop herself from rambling once she opened her mouth. She sighed. "He has dreams involving a girl who keeps telling him to bring her the Ginzuishou. Which, I think it's really weird... cause isn't Luna always harping on us to find the Moon Princess and the Ginzuishou?"

"The girl in his dream may be the Moon Princess," Ami noted speculatively, tapping her lips. "Perhaps Tuxedo Kamen is as dedicated to finding her as we are." She blinked slowly. "Usagi-chan, he told you all this?"

"Er... not exactly." Usagi looked sheepish, and she ducked her blushing head to stare at her lap.

"Uuuusssaaaaggiiii," Rei narrowed her violet eyes at the girl sitting beside her. She plucked at one of Usagi's odangoes, causing the girl to whine. "How do you know this!?"

"I sorta, kinda, maybe... read Mamoru-san's journal," Usagi mumbled, yanking her pigtail back from her fiery friend.

"Usagi!" The girls all exclaimed. Usagi turned bright red.

"Gomen ne!" She wailed, throwing her head back. "I couldn't help it though!"

Rei shook her head, crossing her arms. "Poor Mamoru-san. As if he hasn't already been through enough, now you're going through all his personal things! Usagi-baka!"

"As beneficial as this information is to us, Usagi-chan, I hate to say I agree with Rei," Ami winced at Usagi's hurt expression. "You shouldn't have been spying on him."

"I know," she whimpered. "If only you knew what else he said in that journal."

Minako and Makoto, the duo not even fazed and ever curious, leaned in conspiratorially to their blonde leader. "Tell us!"

Usagi sighed dramatically and buried her face in her hands.

* * *

Four amazed girls slowly walked out of Mamoru's apartment, the entire group completely dazzled, all of their eyes wide in disbelief.

"Can you..." started Rei.

"...believe it?" Minako gushed, clasping her hands together. "Usagi-chan knows Mamoru-san is in love with her!"

"And she's in love with him," Ami said softly from behind the other three girls. The group whipped around to face her.

"What?!?!" They yelled, all of them suddenly clamoring around Ami, yanking at her arms and prying for information.

The blue-haired girl winced and sighed. "She told me so earlier today," she said.

The three girls dropped Ami's arms and stood in shock for a few moments. "Amazing," Minako breathed finally.

Makoto and Rei nodded.

"And they're all alone in that apartment," Makoto noted.

"And Usagi-chan knows Mamoru-san loves her," Rei said.

The three romantics glanced at each other while Ami buried her head in her hands. "Kawaii!" They gushed, provoking another sigh out of Ami. Would she ever get home to examine this "dirt"?

* * *

Usagi leaned heavily against the door to Mamoru's apartment, listening to her friends going on about her as they walked down the hall. Telling them might not have been such a good idea. She sighed and pushed herself away when she finally heard them leave. She adored her friends, but really, it wasn't as simple as they were making it out to be.

For one, if Mamoru ever found out that she had read his journal, he would probably kill her. Especially now that she knew his identity and many of his deep, personal secrets.

She twinged as she walked into the kitchen. She was feeling extremely full of guilt, that was the problem. She could barely even think of the possibility that Mamoru loved her. She should be ecstatic, but mostly she just felt disbelief. It wasn't possible, it simply wasn't! She sighed and leaned against the counter, digging her fingernails into the hard surface. She closed her eyes and groaned in frustration, wishing she had some idea of what to do, how to think, or how to process all the information swirling in her head.

Mamoru _couldn't_ love her. He just couldn't. It was too good for her, too good to actually be true. Things like this didn't happen to simple, plain girls like her. She frowned and opened her eyes. Though, she guessed that she couldn't exactly call herself simple anymore. Not since she became Sailor Moon. Still, she was plain, average. Maybe slightly pretty, but she definitely wasn't a Rei or Minako. _They_ were beautiful; they were the envy of most people. The mysterious Shinto priestess and the bubbly, sunny blonde. But she, Usagi... she was clumsy, lazy, loud, whiny, and average. And below average in her school work. (Rei never failed to remind her of that.) Definitely no match for Mamoru.

So how in the _hell_ could he love _her_? As much as her heart wanted to believe it, her mind simply wouldn't wrap itself around it. It had to be some kind of mistake.

* * *

Usagi left the kitchen, finally, and walked into the living room. She stared blankly at the black television, her mouth pressed into a firm line as she tried to decide if it was worth the effort to try and watch something. Maybe one of her favorite animes was on and she could try to escape the thoughts in her head.

She had finally decided to give it a try when she heard a painful groan from Mamoru's room. She tensed, listening harder. It became so quiet that she could hear him painfully breathe, choking in breaths one after another. Her heart squeezed and she dropped the remote control in her hand on the couch and rushed into his bedroom. She gasped at what she saw. "Mamo-chan, stop that now!"

The bandage-clad man was trying desperately to stand up. He was already halfway out of the bed, his legs swung over the side. Usagi tried to keep herself from blushing. His clothes had mostly been shredded by the youma, so the only choice for Ami and Usagi at the time had simply been to leave his pants the way they were. Neither one of them had wanted to attempt to remove them. Usagi crimsoned at even the thought. But it really didn't help that they were practically shredded to begin with. In fact, they were so shredded that she figured now that it wouldn't have made much of a difference if they had actually removed them, because she could see his boxers underneath anyways (thankfully, they seemed to be intact... Usagi's blush deepened.). She rushed up to him, her hands fanning frantically around him, wondering if it would hurt him if she touched him.

Mamoru looked up at her crossly, his blue eyes narrowed. "Odango, I have no choice. It's fine, so would you stop that?" He snapped, taking one of her hands that was flailing around him and squeezing it, almost painfully. Usagi almost snapped back at him, her anger at his tone rising, until she really looked at him and noticed how heavily he was breathing and that the scars on his chest were glowing faintly. No wonder he was cross. She winced, knowing that his pain had to be immense, if the burning scars were acting up again.

"Why are you getting up?" She whined, letting him squeeze her hand as pain seemed to have him in its grip.

His face turned red, and she wasn't sure if it was from the pain. He struggled for a moment to say something, and he looked up at her uneasily. "I have to, um..." His eyes shifted toward the door close to the bedside. Usagi, adept with the layout of Mamoru's apartment by now, knew it led directly into the bathroom; it was a convenient layout, to have two doors with access into the bathroom.

"Oh." The redness in her own face wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. She coughed. "Well, um, at least let me help you..."

"Definitely not!" He yelled. Okay, now she knew he was blushing. It was kinda cute, except for the fact that he was choking in pain at the same time.

She sighed and shook her head. "I didn't mean it _that _way, Mamoru-baka!" She rolled her eyes. "I meant... at least let me help you _stand up_! Jeez." Okay, him being annoyed at her had automatically led back into their bickering nicknames. Oh well.

He started to reply, except that his chest wounds began to glow even brighter and Usagi gasped when she noticed the bright red even through the bandages. Mamoru groaned in pain and collapsed, falling forward. Usagi yelled out his name as he fell over, reaching out and trying to grasp her arms around him, but she fell to the ground with him as he toppled over. He clenched his teeth, hissing as his side hit the floor. Usagi's hands trembled as she wrapped her arms around him, pulling him up into a sitting position. Her arms ached with the effort, as he wasn't exactly light, but she used all her strength. He choked in anguish as she did and then let his head rest against her shoulder, shaking tremors seizing through him.

"Mamo-chan," she breathed, resting her head in his hair. "I'm so sorry."

Through the pain, he laughed shakily. "It's not your fault, Usako... it's not your fault." His hand found hers and squeezed it. Usagi looked down at him and watched as the red scars slowly dimmed, and she listened closely to his breaths, waiting for them to calm.

Finally, they did, and Usagi let out the pent up sigh that she had been holding. Biting her lip, she gave his hand another squeeze. "Are you okay now, Mamo-chan?" He made a small mumbling noise, and Usagi took it to mean that he was. The girl sighed. "Let's try and get up, okay?" She wrapped one arm around his back and squeezed his hand again. "Okay?" He nodded slowly, wincing. Both of them took a breath, and Usagi felt a pang when she realized that she was just as terrified of another attack as Mamoru was. Gulping, she slowly stood, inching her way up and pulling Mamoru with her. Her arms were really starting to burn now, especially because she was trying to support his weight as much as possible. He was tall and muscular with a lean frame, but still his weight was much more than hers, so it wasn't exactly easy to support that much. She wasn't known for being a particularly strong girl, even with her added senshi strength. Where was Makoto when you needed her? Then she twinged, feeling an unusual pang of jealously at the thought of her friend holding Mamoru the way she was now.

Shocked when they were both suddenly standing, Mamoru leaning heavily against her, Usagi looked up into Mamoru's dark eyes, realizing that she had never been so incredibly close to him, to the point where their breaths mixed into the air together. The top of her head brushed against his chin when she lowered her head, blushing; she sighed internally, hating how incredibly short she was. It would be so nice to be able to lay her head on his shoulder one day...

Shaking her head, she tried to rid the thoughts from her head, knowing it was silly to think that way. "Are you okay?" She looked back up at him, her eyes wide and luminous as his were tired and pinched.

"Yeah," he said, and he turned his head very slowly toward the bathroom door. "It's okay now, Usako. I'll be fine."

She hesitated, but slowly unwound her arm from around him. He smiled down at her worriedly before taking a small breath (too deep of a breath hurt) and inched toward the door. Usagi felt hollow and terrified as he left her, her eyes tracking his slow steps, and she knew each step was interlaced with pain.

She sat down in the chair at his bedside (noting that it had moved further away? Had Mamoru been able to do that?), trying not to listen (awkwardly; she coughed multiple times) yet she tried to remain alert in case anything happened. She sighed tiredly, her head pounding. Ami had been right earlier; she was exhausted. It had been a very long day, and worrying didn't really help matters at all. It was amazing, really, how much strength it took to get through a day when your heart was aching and confused.

Usagi waited for several long minutes, but then she started to get really worried when Mamoru never came back. She frowned and stood quickly, going to the door. She knocked on it lightly. "Mamo-chan?" There was no reply. "Mamo-chan?!" She knocked louder, but again there was no reply. Scared, she barged into the bathroom.... to find it completely empty. She blinked repeatedly, and then she noticed that the other door was open. She raced through it and out into the hallway. She peered into the living room, and her tense shoulders relaxed when she spied Mamoru sitting on the couch. "You really are a lot of trouble, you know that?"

Mamoru was leaning back into the sofa, and she heard him chuckle lightly. "Well, I figured that it took enough energy to get up, so I might as well try and sit up for a while..." Usagi walked around and stared down at him, her hands on her hips, shaking her head. He looked at her with a sheepish smile and his blue eyes pleading. "Is.. it okay?"

She sighed and collapsed into the beige armchair adjacent to him. "You really should be resting, but I guess you can do as you like." She leaned her head back and closed her eyes.

"I'm sorry, Usako. You look tired..." She opened her blue eyes and blinked over at him. He was looking at her worriedly. "You should get some sleep. I'll be alright."

She shook her head. "I wouldn't be able to sleep; I just... have a feeling." She shrugged.

"Is something wrong?" He asked, but Usagi shook her head.

"Don't worry about it, Mamo-chan," she stood up. "I'll be back; where do you keep your pants?"

Okay, now that was a weird question. "My.. uh... pants?" He gave her a funny, distorted expression, his face disfigured into an awkward, pinched cheek pose, and she couldn't help but double over and start laughing.

Laughs started literally pouring out of her, and she grasped onto her stomach. She propped on the couch armrest, giggling at him. "Mamo-chan, in case you haven't noticed, yours aren't so great." She motioned toward the tattered fabric on his legs, and his face crimsoned.

"Ah, um..."

She giggled. "I was going to bring you some others? Something comfortable?"

"Right." He cleared his throat. "Uh, second drawer in the chest of drawers by the door."

"Be right back!" She chirped, flitting away into the bedroom. She grinned, thinking of Mamoru's completely flustered expression. That had been absolutely priceless!

She quickly went through his drawers and found the pants he was talking about. Pajama pants, obviously. Flannel, soft, and comfortable. She went back into the living room and handed them to him. Clearing her throat, she perched on the edge of the armchair. "Do, um, you need help?"

Okay, now she had enlisted Motoki's help for this sort of thing, but wasn't twenty minutes after ten o'clock at night a bit late to be calling the man? Mamoru was shaking his head, however. "I'll be fine," he said. "I'm finding that even though it's not pleasant, I can move," he gave her an encouraging smile. "As long as I don't have one of those... attacks..." He flinched just thinking about it.

Usagi pursed her lips into a thin line. "Okay, but I'll just... be in the kitchen if you need me." She stood and started to leave.

"Just try not to eat everything while you're in there," Mamoru called, a teasing tone evident in his voice.

"Har har har," Usagi mocked, waving her hand over her shoulder. She could hear Mamoru chuckle behind her as she left the room.

* * *

It was only a little while later, about half an hour, while Usagi was cooking soup (out of a can... she wasn't that brave) and making sandwiches for Mamoru to eat (he actually couldn't believe he hadn't eaten since the previous morning before the attack. It had almost been two days since he had touched food!) when there was heavy pounding on the front door.

Usagi was just pouring the soup into a bowl, and she frowned, leaving the food on the counter and rushing to the door. Mamoru stared from his place in the armchair, where he had relocated after changing clothes.

Usagi whipped open the door to a heavily breathing Ami, who was waving the bag of "youma dust" in her hand, her blue hair wind whipped from what Usagi suspected was a run from her house. "I got it, Usagi-chan! I got him, I know I did! I know where the youma is! He's in the northern sector of Tokyo. He's hiding out in the forest because he's still injured by the attacks you, Jupiter, and Mars inflicted on him! He may regenerate, but he does weaken with every hit!" The girl was too far gone in her rambling for Usagi to stop her. "Usagi-chan, let's go! Call Motoki-kun! I know it's late, but surely he wouldn't mind staying with Mamoru-san for a little while, right? Especially for this important of senshi business! We have to get this thing while it's still weak! While it can't get back to the Dark Kingdom because it's injured!"

"Dark Kingdom?! Youma?! Senshi?!"

Ami froze, and Usagi flinched, her eyes pinching into slits as she stared across at Ami's widening blue eyes. Ami gave Usagi a panicked gaze. Usagi winced. "Mamo-chan is feeling a little bit better."

Ami paled and strode past Usagi into the living room. She gasped when she saw Mamoru sitting in the armchair facing them, staring at her as if she were a ghost. She fidgeted slightly at Mamoru's harsh, piercing blue stare.

Usagi, walking in behind her, bit her lip.

Mamoru was watching the duo with narrowed eyes. "Either of you care to explain to me exactly what is going on? How do you know about the Dark Kingdom? What are you talking about with the youma? The youma that attacked me?"

"Er, yes, that youma..." Ami trailed off. She felt terrible. She was never, _ever_ that impulsive, but she had been so completely sure of herself, sure of her findings, that when she found the answer she had just exploded to Usagi with the news! And now at look at the situation she had gotten them in! This was completely unacceptable and so unlike her! She felt shamed at making this horrible mistake...

Usagi put her arm on Ami's. "Ami-chan?" The blonde girl looked at her with a reassuring smile.

Mamoru shifted his eyes back and forth between the two girls, noting that a seemingly silent conversation seemed to be going on between the two of them with their eyes. Ami's looked wide and unsure. Usagi's eyes mirrored Ami's, but there was definitely a more urgent hint there. Finally, after a painstakingly long moment, Ami nodded.

Usagi took a deep, calming breath before taking a step closer to Mamoru's chair. "Mamo-chan, Ami-chan and I have to go out for a little while. We have to find that youma that attacked you, because it's poisoning you. The reason you keep having those attacks is because that youma isn't dead yet. We thought it was, but it regenerated itself."

"Its venom is in your system, and while that youma lives, the venom will continue to spread until it drains your energy and kills you," Ami interjected. "To be honest, I'm amazed that you seem to be doing better, because it doesn't seem possible!"

Mamoru's eyes were wide and confused as he sat there, staring at them. "But, ah, why... I mean... why are you..."

Usagi fidgeted on her feet for a moment, gnawing on her lip. "Mamo-chan, there's something we probably need to tell you..."

Ami wasn't paying much attention to Usagi at the moment, however. She was pacing around Mamoru's living room, obviously deep in her thoughts. "Could it be that Mamoru's fighting off the poison from the venom by some sort of power that he holds? As Tuxedo Kamen, I mean... it's entirely possible, but I would have to do some thorough scans to be sure..."

Usagi slapped a hand to her head at her friend. "Ami-chan!" She knew when Ami got a theory in her head, she did get a little lost in thought...

Mamoru's breathing hitched up and his eyes literally started to bug out of his skull. "Ho—how—how do.. do you... know that?!"

Ami stopped pacing and clapped a hand over her mouth, staring at Usagi, who shook her head. "We have to tell him, Ami-chan. Please let me?"

Ami tapped her foot for a moment. "I don't really think we have any choice. I mean, I guess it is only fair, since you did sort of spy--"

"Ami-chan!" Usagi rushed up to the girl, clapping a hand over her mouth. "Ahahahaha..."

Ami blushed and lowered her head. "Gomen nasai."

Mamoru was glaring at Usagi, though. "What did you do, Usako?"

"Ah, um, well..." Usagi scratched her head. "We'll have to talk about that later, ahahahaha..." She cleared her throat. "We do need to tell you something though, Mamo-chan..." She paused. "Actually, it may be easier just to show you." She looked at Ami, who nodded.

Mamoru raised his eyebrow and started to say something, but he stopped when Usagi took a deep breath and shot her hand up into the air, fingers splayed out. His eyes widened to the size of saucers.

"Moon Prism Power, Make Up!"

* * *

End Chapter Five

Well, there we go... took a bit to get this chapter out. Had a touch of writer's block. But not too bad. Next chapter will be out soon! Review, please! Reviews make me happy and I write more when I get more reviews... (nooo, that's not bribery at all.... tee hee)


	6. Chapter 6

I just finished Chapter 5 and posted it a few hours ago, and I'm still in that 'mood' where all I want to do is sit and write, so I'm up really late (when I have a lab tomorrow and probably shouldn't be) writing because.... well, it's kind of addicting! Lol. So hope you all enjoy this chapter!

Is It Wrong to Thank the Youma?  
Chapter Six

* * *

Mamoru literally stared. His jaw dropped, his dark blue eyes were spinning with amazement, and his hands were clenched on the armrests of the chair... which had its purpose, because otherwise he probably would have jumped up (or tried to, anyway), and that would have hurt like _hell_.

But what did anybody expect?! The beautiful, yet clumsy senshi he saved from danger every night and the young, also clumsy, and also beautiful girl he adored beyond words.... _were the very same! _

Now that his eyes roamed over her shamelessly (he was owed that much, right?), he saw it. They had the same hair, the same eyes, and the same personality; he was like a blind man seeing the light for the very first time. Her love for everyone and everything around her... it was definitely in both of them! How could he have not seen it before?

Now the fuku clad soldier in front of him fidgeted in her red heeled boots, tugging nervously at the short, frilled blue skirt clinging to her hips. She bit her lip nervously (it was so _Usagi!_), her eyes veering away from his searching gaze. From behind her, Ami cleared her throat. Mamoru, for the first time in several long minutes, noticed her standing there.

"Mercury Power, Make Up!" She yelled suddenly, and more ribbons and swirling lights filled the room, this time coated with a tint of blue. Then in a matter of seconds, Sailor Mercury was standing in front of him as well, giving him an apologetic smile.

"You have got to be kidding me," he finally said, his voice an absolute croak. Okay, so first Usagi was Sailor Moon... now Ami was Sailor Mercury... this was getting ridiculous. "The others?"

"Er... Mako-chan is Sailor Jupiter, Rei-chan is Sailor Mars, and Minako-chan is Sailor Venus." Sailor Moon managed in a small voice.

"Obviously," he muttered, and he could see all of _them_ too, even without their being here! His eyes were glued to the carpeted floor as he tried to wrap his head around it all.

"Um, Mamo-chan, I know it's a lot to take in, but..." Sailor Moon let out a deep sigh and she clasped her white-gloved hands together. He finally ripped his eyes up to her nervous, unsure azure ones. "Mercury and I really do have very, very important senshi business we _have_ to attend to, for your sake. We have to go after that youma. I promise I will be back as soon as I can. I made you some soup and sandwiches..." She trailed off, suddenly dashed into the kitchen, and came back within a minute carrying a tray filled with food. She gingerly set it down on the coffee table in front of him and backed away. "We... we can talk when I get back?" She tried to catch his eyes again, but he looked away. He had to have time to think this through first before even thinking of talking to her about it...

She let out a disappointed sigh. "Try... try not to move too much while we're gone..." She ran out of the room again and came back within a minute again, and this time she deposited a pillow and blanket on the couch. "If you get too tired," she murmured. "But don't go too far; you could have another attack..."

He nodded mutely, his eyes fascinated with the carpet again. Or un-fascinated, whichever made more sense. Had he always had such dull, dark carpet? Maybe he'd just never looked at it before...

He looked up finally to tell her goodbye, but he blinked when he noticed the drapes around his balcony doors blowing lightly where the door had been locked shut swiftly, and both of the young girls were missing. He sighed.

He was trapped without the ability to move much for fear of pain, and he had no way of helping them in his current state. His temple throbbed, and he leaned back, shutting his eyes.

Usagi was Sailor Moon. He was in love with Usagi. He felt a pull toward Sailor Moon every single time she was in danger. They were one and the same.

At least it meant he was only tormented by two women instead of three.

* * *

"That didn't go so well," Sailor Moon murmured to Sailor Mercury as they ran to meet the other senshi.

Sailor Mercury shook her blue head, her arms pumping at her sides as she ran. "I don't know; maybe it's just shock?"

"Hope so," Sailor Moon said, her breaths becoming more labored the longer they ran.

Up ahead, in front of the steps to the Hikawa Shrine, Rei's home, the two senshi noticed the rest of their comrades standing at the bottom of the staircase. Sailor Venus was waving her hand in the air at them, and Sailor Moon felt her heart grow a little lighter at the sight of her bubbly friend. She smiled back, waving.

Unfortunately, multitasking in such a way wasn't a good skill of Sailor Moon's. "_KYAA!_" She suddenly yelled as her foot hit a rock in her path, and it sent her sprawling across the pavement to make direct contact with the hard concrete. Her head and eyes swirling, the girl lay flat on her stomach for a moment. She pushed herself up, rubbed her head, and stood up slowly. She started wincing as she limped toward her friends, rubbing her thigh where it had hit.

The four girls, Mercury just joining them moments before, were all staring at her with dropped jaws and wide eyes.

She flinched at the gazes. "What?!"

"Y-y-you didn't cry!" Mars sputtered, sticking her finger out at the girl.

Sailor Moon blinked slowly for a moment, still rubbing her hip gently. Then she sighed and looked down, her eyes becoming sad. "As much as anything may hurt, I'm trying not to be so selfish," she said softly.

"What do you mean, Sailor Moon?" Sailor Jupiter asked, going to the girl and putting an arm around her affectionately. She looked so upset!

"After you've been around someone you really care about that is in a lot of _real_, terrifying pain, small pains of your own don't mean as much anymore," she whispered, her eyes lifting to gaze around at her friends. All their eyes were soft and caring.

"You really love him, don't you?" Sailor Venus' eyes were brightly glowing.

Sailor Moon didn't say anything; she just turned an embarrassed shade of pink.

Sailor Jupiter chuckled and clapped her back. "We won't tease you, Sailor Moon; we promise!"

"Speak for yourself, Jupiter!" Sailor Mars stuck her tongue out at Sailor Moon playfully, winking. Sailor Moon couldn't help but giggle.

The others giggled as well, and then they smiled for a long moment. Realizing that the night was breaking into the next morning very soon, they sighed and brought their minds back to the pressing issue. Sailor Mercury took out her small computer and quickly brought up the information that they needed. Nodding to the other senshi, she turned her Mercury visor on, and a dark blue screen flashed across her face, shielding over her eyes. "I've programmed the youma's whereabouts into the visor," she said. "Let's go!"

"Hai!" The rest of the group nodded, and the senshi broke into a strong run.

* * *

They ran for a very long time, and they had been in the dark, damp forest for a while now, too. They had finally slowed to a walk as Mercury was more focused on her visor and computer.

"Yuck," Sailor Venus complained as she jumped over a soggy tree log in her way. She shook a damp leaf off her shoe. "It would have rained practically all day."

"Just be thankful it's not raining now," Mercury murmured as she peered through the visor closely. "We are very, very near. Look out, minna."

They walked slowly with their eyes and ears focused on anything present. A snapping twig sent shivers up Sailor Moon's spine and she wanted to scream, but she bit down hard on her lip to stop herself. This was no time for her to be freaking out!

Sailor Mercury stopped. The senshi behind her froze as well. With a shaky finger, Mercury pointed directly in front of her. "There."

Jupiter peered ahead into the darkness. "There's nothing there."

"I can feel it," Mars whispered. Fire was brimming in her fingertips. Sailor Moon noticed it out of the corner of her eye as she stared ahead.

Then, out of the deep dankness of the night, the red, taloned youma from the morning before lumbered from behind the trees out into the damp, grassy area where the senshi stood in a huddle, and smoke literally came out of its nostrils in puffs of angry air. Sailor Moon gulped back a lump in her throat; she had forgotten how incredibly big it was.

"Oh, you remember us alright," Sailor Jupiter clenched her fists at her side, her green eyes . "Are we ready, minna?"

"Hai!" The others yelled, with Sailor Mercury snapping her computer shut and pocketing it in her subspace pocket, leaving her visor on.

* * *

Mamoru sat staring out the wide, balcony doors, his eyes trying to search out a blonde girl in the darkness. Would she be back soon? Would they find the youma? Would they be alright without him?

He sighed and looked down at the now cold bowl of chicken soup in front of him. A soft smile played on his lips. Usagi was so very _kind; _she had done so much for him, and she had been by his side the entire time.

But then a frown carried across his features. But how did she and Mercury know that he was Tuxedo Kamen? How long had they known? What else did they know? He sighed and slowly reached down to take one of the sandwiches that Usagi had made. All of her food couldn't go to waste, even if he really didn't feel like eating at all.

* * *

"Kuso!" Sailor Jupiter hissed through her teeth as the youma swiped at her, scratching one of its long talons against the soft skin of her cheek. She reached back and punched it in its scaly face with all of her might. She took a step back as it reared back with a furious roar and started to charge toward her.

Mercury gasped, running toward the girl. "Jupiter, watch the talons! That's where the venom is! Be careful!"

From behind Jupiter, Venus leaped into the air, flipping over the girl. "Crescent Beam!" She yelled, and as she spiraled back down to the ground, the bright beam of light seared through her fingertip and stopped the youma's charge, hitting it directly in the chest. She twirled around, her blonde hair flying out behind her, and winked at Jupiter. "Gotcha!" The thunder senshi nodded her thanks, giving Venus a thumbs-up.

The youma had a small dented hole in its chest, but it was far from weakened. Mercury's face became darker as she realized how little damage Venus had really done to the beast. It started to come toward them again, and Sailor Mars dashed by Mercury, toward it.

"Fire Soul!" She screamed, and the fire that had been brewing in her fingertips leaped away from her, spiraling into large fireballs as it hurled toward the youma. The youma let out a roar and dodged the attack, and Mars' anger rose. "Oh no, you don't!" She started to run toward it, but the youma turned to her and suddenly rushed past her. The fire senshi gasped in pain as the youma used one of its talons and knocked her to the ground.

"Mars!" Sailor Moon yelled, starting to go toward the girl. The youma, however, had other plans. Sailor Moon screamed when the beast rushed at her and knocked her down, pinning her into the dirt. Its talons pinned her shoulders down, and she tried to kick at it uselessly. The snake-like beast hissed at her, bearing its fanged teeth, the yellow eyes growing bigger and bigger in its dragon-like face.

"_Sailor Moon!!_"

She heard the other senshi screaming her name, but the youma was emitting some strange, draining energy from its body, and she heard as the senshi yelled out their attacks, but nothing seemed to even penetrate through the shield the youma was creating. Then, for the first time, she heard it speak. "Shine!" The voice was crackling, and it sent terrors through Sailor Moon.

"I... don't... think... so!" She gasped in a breath, knowing that her energy was being drained, and she clenched her teeth. "You hurt someone very important to me! I won't let you hurt anyone else I love!" Her blue eyes turned fierce, and the youma started to plunge its teeth at her, obviously going for the kill. "NO!" She screamed. "_MOON PRISM POWER!_" From her tiara, a strong, white light flooded, and it scorched through the youma, sending it sprawling backward on the ground. As it hit, parts of its body dissolved into dust. Breathing heavily, Sailor Moon's eyes closed, her energy completely spent. Her head rolled to the side, and she went limp.

The youma was starting to get up again, slowly, and the other senshi were completely torn as to what to do. Mercury ran toward Sailor Moon, screaming her name as she dropped to the ground and gathered the blonde girl in her arms.

Jupiter, seeing Mercury with Moon, turned back to the youma, who was now standing, but the creature was missing several body parts. Jupiter cringed at how disgusting the creature was. Its arms were dangling by lose strands of muscle, its stomach pierced clean through with Moon's power. She charged toward it, bringing her hands together to form her attack. "Supreme Thunder!" She yelled, stretching her arms out wide as lightning cracked through the lightning rod darting up from her tiara. The youma screamed, unable to dodge the attack. Before Jupiter's eyes, the youma's arms dissolved completely.

"Crescent Beam!" Venus joined Jupiter's side suddenly, and she lashed out her own attack at the youma, who suffered another blow to its stomach. Dust fluttered to the ground around it.

"Kuso," Jupiter cursed, "why won't it die?!"

Sailor Mars was running toward Sailor Mercury and Sailor Moon, but Mercury kept shaking her head at the raved haired girl. "Mars! Jupiter and Venus need your fire! You need to finish that thing off; I've got Sailor Moon! Go, go!" Mars, torn, stared at Sailor Moon's limp form in Mercury's arms, and then her head whipped back to Jupiter and Venus, who were skirting around the youma as it kept going for them with its teeth. She looked back at Mercury. Her visor was up, and she was gazing at the youma even with Moon in her arms. "Scorch the dust, Mars! It's weak! This is your chance!"

Sailor Mars nodded and broke into a run toward the youma again, and she whipped a scroll in front of her. "Rin, pou, tou, sha, kai, retsu, sai, zen!" The writing on the scroll turned fiery red and she threw it at the youma. "Akuyo Taisan!" She screamed, and the scroll, literally stuck to the youma's face, began to flame. The youma screamed in agony, but it was unable to rip the scroll off its face with no arms. Mars skidded to a stop directly in front of the youma. She stretched her arms out. "Fire Soul!" She yelled again, and the flames leaped at the youma, wrapping around it completely. Tortured screams filled the air around them as the youma left its form and became dust at Mars' feet. Jupiter and Venus ran to join her. The three looked at each other and nodded, and then they each reached a hand out.

"Jupiter Power!"

"Venus Power!"

"Mars Power!"

Throwing their powers on the dust, it dissolved away, and nothing was left.

Tired, the three girls wrapped their arms around each other and started to slowly walk back toward Sailor Mercury, who was smiling at them. "It's gone," she said. "It won't be back; you killed it, and without the dust of its form, it can't return! I'm proud of you all."

The girls smiled, and Sailor Venus dropped to Mercury's side. "Sailor Moon?"

"She's unconscious, but I think she'll be okay." Mercury said. "She's just exhausted. She was tired before we even came, and then she used a lot of power on that youma. You wouldn't believe how much she weakened it," Mercury had a note of praise in her voice as she looked down at the girl. "But let's get her back to Mamoru-san's. She can sleep now."

They nodded, relief spreading through all of them. Sailor Jupiter took Sailor Moon and hoisted her up into her arms. The senshi turned and started to walk out of the dark forest.

* * *

Mamoru was leaning his head back in the chair, his eyes closed, when he felt... better. His eyes opened and he frowned. Something was very different; the fiery pain and threat of a painful attack in the back of his mind were seemingly gone. He lifted his arm warily.

It didn't hurt. He gasped. He lifted his other arm. It didn't hurt, either. In fact, it felt normal. He gripped the sides of the armchair and pushed himself up to stand, expecting a full onslaught of pain. His eyes tightly closed, he waited for the anguish to roll over him and throw him to the floor.

But it didn't happen. He felt very sore, and small twinges of pain seemed to nip at his skin, but he felt... he felt... _okay!_

Mamoru smiled widely. They had killed the youma. He sighed, extremely relieved, and leaned down to pick up the food tray on the coffee table, heading to the kitchen to clean it. It actually felt _good_ to move again!

* * *

Mamoru heard muffled voices outside his door, and he tilted his head.

"Ouch! Minako-chan, stop that!"

"I can pick the lock, I know I can!"

"Why aren't we just knocking on the door?"

"Mamoru-san's injured, Mako-chan, remember? He can't move very well! Minako-chan, I said get out of the way! I can't pick the lock with you in the way!"

"Rei-chan, how do you know how to pick a lock? Really, let me!"

"I have to break into Ojii-chan's treat cabinet somehow! You would think an old man would let his granddaughter share some of his sweets sometimes, but noooo... Minako-chan, out of the way!"

"If you give me a moment, I can input some data and find the exact location of..."

"Ami-chan, it's a lock! This isn't advanced physics or anything."

"Could you guys hurry up already? Usagi-chan's not exactly light!"

"She's been eating too many meat buns again, hasn't she?"

"_Rei-chan_!"

Mamoru swung open the door to see a laughing Rei, who was hunched over, a pin sticking out of her hand. She blinked repeatedly, her violet eyes confused, and she looked up. "Oh, hi Mamoru-san."

He blinked down at her as well, before his dark eyes looked up and he saw the others. Ami had her computer open, clinking away at it. Minako was shuffling on her feet directly beside Rei. She flashed him a sheepish grin. Makoto stood behind them all, and a blonde girl was nestled in her arms, two blonde odangoes leaning against Makoto's chest.

He gasped. "Usako! What happened? Is she okay?!"

"She's fine, Mamoru-san," Ami soothed, pushing past Rei into the apartment. She placed a soft hand on Mamoru's shaking arm. "She used a lot of energy to weaken the youma, though, so she passed out afterward. She's just unconscious from pure exhaustion."

Mamoru nodded mutely, his eyes not leaving Usagi's form. Makoto cleared her throat. "Can, uh, I put her down now?"

The man snapped out of his thoughts. "Gomen ne. Come in, please.." He stepped aside and let the girls file into the apartment.

Relieved, Makoto deposited the limp Usagi on the couch. She stretched her arms and rolled her neck around on her shoulders. "Phew!"

"Too many meat buns is all I'm saying," Rei grinned as she leaned over the back of the couch.

"And to think I had to practically fight you to get you to leave Sailor Moon to help finish the youma off," Ami muttered as she stood beside Rei, tapping her foot. Rei coughed uncomfortably.

Minako stood apart from the rest of the group a little bit, staring at Mamoru, who was also just standing there, watching the scene. She tilted her blonde head to the side, back and forth, pursing her lips and scrunching her brow. "Something's different about him, minna."

The other girls snapped their heads to look at Mamoru, who blinked.

Ami suddenly grinned. "You feel better now, don't you Mamoru-san?"

The man reached his hand up effortlessly and scratched his cheek, letting out a small laugh. "I started feeling extremely better about half an hour ago. Suddenly I felt like I could breathe, and it didn't hurt to move so much." He walked around the couch to prove his point. "I'm still very sore, but I heal pretty fast. I always have."

"I knew it!" Ami took a small jump, her blue hair bobbing in the air, and the others raised eyebrows at her. "He does have protective powers as Tuxedo Kamen! I knew it, knew it!" She moved her head around to glance at her friends. "See, his powers were fighting off the venom, so he wasn't draining of his energy and dying the way the youma planned. He was just in a lot of pain, and now that the youma's gone, his powers can focus on healing him!"

"Okay, that is it," Mamoru sighed crossly, his eyes narrowed at Ami. "How in the _hell_ do you know so much about me? How do you know who I am?"

The room became eerily silent as the girls all looked at each other. Makoto cleared her throat and sat on the couch, pulling Usagi's feet to rest in her lap. Rei shifted her eyes to look at Ami. Minako walked up to Rei and looked at Ami as well. Ami sighed, realizing that they were expecting her to explain. Oh, sure, make the _smart_ senshi do all the work. "Well, you see, it's... ah, it's all Usagi's fault!" She managed, pointing down at the blonde on the couch.

Mamoru raised his eyebrows, and his eyes drifted down to the still girl on the couch. She looked peaceful, and he hoped she was simply sleeping. She was curled up, her arm tucked under her head as a pillow. His eyes softened just looking at her, but he forced himself to look away and he looked up at the other girls again. "As I suspect Usako tells you all everything, how did _she_ know?"

Minako, unable to stop herself, giggled. "He keeps calling her Usako; kawaii!"

"Minako-chan!" Makoto hissed up at her from her place on the sofa. Minako giggled again.

Rei sighed, a large puff of her leaving her lips. "Mamoru-san, Usagi-chan is the nosiest girl on the face of the Earth. She read some notebook of yours. I mean, not that it's surprising. Usagi listens to everyone's conversations and she can never keep her nose out of anyth—"

"Notebook?" Mamoru interrupted, scrunching his dark brow. "What notebook?"

"She said it was a journal," Makoto said.

Mamoru's eyes lighted up. "That notebook?" He frowned. "Yeah, I tried to start a journal... a suggestion of Motoki's. But I didn't write much in it, only two—oh my god." He froze. The girls exchanged nervous glances. He paled considerably, and his face snapped down to look at Usagi, his eyes wide. "How—what did she read?"

"Um... all of it," Minako twiddled her thumbs together.

Mamoru collapsed into one of the armchairs, and he buried his face in his hands. "Oh, no..."

"Yeah, she saw the part where you said you loved her," Rei was waving her hand back and forth, obviously not worried in the least. "Really, Mamoru-san, I wouldn't freak out or anything. I mean, she so totally told us—"

"Rei-chan!" The others snapped. Rei turned red and she pinched her lips with her forefinger and thumb.

Mamoru simply sighed into his hands, remaining silent. The girls looked around at each other, not really knowing what to do.

* * *

It was only a little while later when Mamoru said goodbye to the girls and they shuffled out of his apartment, looking guilt-ridden. He glanced up at the clock. It was almost two in the morning. Thankfully, he realized it was Saturday, so he didn't have to worry about class. He walked back into the living room and leaned over the back of the couch to watch Usagi.

He frowned. If she read that journal, or the sad excuse of the journal that it was considering it really hadn't gotten very far, then she knew he was in love with her. He had plainly spelled it out. There would be no confusion.

But she hadn't exactly ran away screaming when she had read it. But why hadn't she said anything? If what he had heard between her and Ami was true, then _she_ was in love with him, too... But if so, and she had read that, why hadn't she... why hadn't she _said_ _anything_?

He sighed and shook his head, trying to clear it. He gazed down at her small figure for a long moment, taking in her long blonde hair pooling around her, her lips pouted as she slept on. He smiled. She was so lovely. He walked around the the sofa and knelt in front of her, and his hand reached out involuntarily and brushed the soft bangs from her face. She scrunched her face in her sleep, and he sighed, relieved when he felt sure she really was just sleeping now. She had to be very tired... first she and the senshi had saved him, then she had taken care of him, and then she had gone to kill the youma to save him _again_. All within the past forty-eight hours! And apparently she hadn't done much sleeping in between.

"You really are amazing, Usako," he whispered, and he leaned down to place a soft kiss on her forehead. He watched as her nose scrunched, and he chuckled softly.

"Mamo-chan," she murmured, and he froze. He waited, but her eyes never opened. He let out a breath of relief. Wrapping his arms around her, he lifted her into his arms (thankfully his strength was _finally_ back) and padded into the bedroom. He lowered her into the bed gently and pulled the blankets around her, tucking her in. Settling into the chair by the bed, he smiled at the reversed situation, where he was now watching over her as she slept. He propped his chin in his open palm, resting his elbow on the armrest of the chair, and let his eyes rest on her.

* * *

End Chapter Six

I'll have the next chapter soon. :)

Thank you for the reviews!!! :)


	7. Chapter 7

Okay, here we go with chapter 7! I hope you all enjoy it, and thank you soooo much to all the great reviews I've gotten. You're all so nice, I'm glad everyone is enjoying the story!

Is It Wrong To Thank The Youma?  
Chapter Seven

* * *

Usagi felt extremely warm. She purred in contentment as the glowing light surrounded her. Blinking open her eyes sleepily, she saw the source of the warmth was the bright sunlight pouring in through the open drapes of Mamoru's bedroom.

Then she froze. Mamoru's bedroom? She shot up, her head whipping around her. She was laying in Mamoru's bed; how had that happened? Hadn't she been... she gasped. The youma! Mamoru! Where was Mamoru?! Throwing the covers back, the girl jumped from the bed and rushed out the door. "Mamo-chan!" She yelled, running into the living room.

The man popped his head out of the kitchen, and Usagi's blue eyes widened. He was wearing a black, button up shirt and khaki slacks, with a kitchen towel slung over his shoulder. He looked... _well_. She stuttered out a few incoherent phrases. Mamoru grinned at her and removed the towel from his shoulder, placing it on the kitchen counter before he walked up to her.

Her hair was disheveled, and her shorts and shirt were rumpled, but he had to admit that he'd never seen her so lovely. He smiled down at her when he reached her. She stared with her mouth open, unable to say anything.

He reached out and brushed back some hair that was clinging to her face. "Did you sleep well, Usako?"

Her mouth snapped closed with a pop, and she took a shaky step closer to him. "Y-you... Mamo-chan... you..."

"I'm okay, Usako," he whispered, smiling at her. "Thanks to you."

"H-how?" She squeaked, one of her hands flying up to her mouth.

He sighed and took her hand away from her mouth, pulling her toward the couch. "Sit down, okay? I'll be right back."

The girl nodded mutely, her eyes still wide. She tried to process her thoughts while he was gone. The youma had attacked her, she had blacked out... and then... the youma was... did they kill it? She leaned back into the sofa, bringing her legs up to tuck underneath her indian-style. Mamoru returned with a tray of food. Usagi stared down at it. "Oh my god, you _cook_." The tray was filled with different dishes: rice cakes, porridge, toast, and omelets. Usagi reached out and took a piece of toast.

Mamoru blinked. "Sometimes, when I have time." He sat in the armchair adjacent to her. "I can't believe Motoki-kun bought so much food, though. I hope it doesn't go to waste," he frowned. "I really am not here enough to eat that much."

Usagi nodded absently, nibbling at her food. "Motoki-kun told me to ask you about what you've done for him sometime."

Mamoru tilted his head, and his black hair fell over his eyes. Usagi couldn't help but stare. The cuts on his face were barely visible now! How was it possible?

"Motoki-kun and I have been friends since high school." He frowned. "I'm not sure what he means, except that I introduced him to Reika-san? She was my lab partner in my chemistry class. Oh," he paused, a grin spreading across his face as he looked over at her. "I may know what he means. Reika and Motoki had been together for about... a year, when one night Motoki showed up here and said she was leaving him. Which, I wasn't surprised; Motoki is always getting himself into trouble with her. He's too friendly with everyone, as innocent as he is about it," he smiled, shaking his head.

Usagi leaned over the armrest of the couch. "What did he do?"

"Apparently, he'd been at one of our university socials." Mamoru's smile vanished. "Motoki doesn't exactly flirt with other girls, but he's just so _nice_ to everyone, every _girl,_ that he meets, that they automatically assume he's flirting." Mamoru raised an eyebrow, his stare boring into Usagi. "And most girls who meet him fall for him." Usagi blushed, and Mamoru smirked. "Anyways, that night one girl went a bit too far. Thinking that Motoki-kun was expecting her to, she kissed him." Mamoru sighed. "And of course, Reika was pretty close by. So as you can guess, that didn't go over very well."

"Wow," Usagi breathed. "What happened?"

"Reika slapped him and told him they were through, and then she stalked out. Motoki ran here after he couldn't find Reika, and he told me the whole story. He stayed here, and when he was asleep, I left and went to Reika-san's apartment." Mamoru shrugged. "She was really upset, obviously. But I talked to her for a long while, and explained to her that Motoki-kun... well, he's pretty clueless. Which, she should have realized by that point, honestly." He sighed. "I scolded her, I think, and I made her mad, because..." He shrugged. "Motoki-kun is the closest thing I have to a brother, and I feel like his happiness is part of my responsibility. He's really a good person. He wouldn't purposely hurt Reika if his life depended on it. Anyways, she calmed down after a while and she came back to my apartment with me. She woke Motoki up and they made up. Thankfully, I was able to kick them out after that," he coughed. Usagi giggled. "But Motoki-kun always runs to me when something is amiss with Reika-san. Way it is." He smiled softly, shaking his head.

"But what about your happiness?" Usagi asked, her chin propped on her elbows. She gazed across at him, and his face darkened.

"I don't know what you mean," he said.

"Who's responsible for your happiness?"

Mamoru opened his mouth and then snapped it shut. "Dunno," he said shortly, and he turned his head away from her.

Usagi leaned back into the sofa again, and she looked down at her lap. It was quiet for a few long moments before Usagi's confusion returned to her. "So what happened last night?"

Mamoru turned his head back to her, watching her blue eyes as they stared down. "Well, the girls brought you back here unconscious. They said the youma attacked you, but that you really weakened it considerably."

Usagi's eyes widened. "I did?!"

"Ami-san told me that if you hadn't used your power on it, the other girls might not have been able to kill it."

"Oh my god." She blinked for a moment, and then her eyes brightened. "But they killed it!"

"Yes, they got it," Mamoru's face spread into a soft smile. "And when it was gone, I felt better almost immediately." He frowned. "As Ami-san pointed out last night, my powers normally help me heal very quickly, but that venom had been stopping them."

"But you couldn't get any worse from the venom, either."

"Right. It just hurt like hell," Mamoru winced. He leaned forward and reached out to put a hand on Usagi's bare knee. She shivered. "Thank you, Usako... you saved me."

Usagi blushed prettily, and one of her hands reached out and covered his. "I..." She didn't really know what to say. "Mamo-chan..." She gnawed on her lip nervously.

He shook his head. "Usako, you have done so much for me. What I don't understand is... why? Why do all that... for _me_?" He looked up at her, his heart clamoring wildly in his chest.

So... what now? He hoped beyond hope that she would utter the words he'd been imagining since he'd overheard her talking about it with Ami... but what if he really had just imagined it? In his delirious state, how much of the past few days had he only just imagined?

Usagi turned bright red at his intense gaze on her. His eyes weren't moving away from hers, and her lip started bleeding from where she bit into it roughly. Oh god, what now? What now? Did she... did she tell him? Did she give in to hope? Let her heart take the risk on this man she adored so much? Was she brave enough with her heart to give it to him?

_She's a lot braver than she thinks she is._

The words in Mamoru's journal pierced through her mind. She opened her mouth to say something, and she watched as Mamoru's eyes widened. They were swirling, deep, and blue... was he waiting for her to say it? Did he know? Was it that obvious in her, that he knew?

"I read your journal," she said instead, and she turned a bright pink. She wasn't brave; was Mamoru mad?

"I know," he said simply, and his eyes fell into a dark storm. "That's how you found out about my identity. The girls told me." She nodded woodenly. He was looking down at the carpet now, and she saw the disappointed, forlorn look in his eyes. She let out a small breath of air, her eyes soaking in his. There was a look in his eye... It was there; she saw it! It was as bright as sunshine peeking through a dark cloud, as glimmering as a diamond hidden in a black cave. He did love her... He _was_ wanting her to say it.

Usagi suddenly choked back a sob, and Mamoru's eyes snapped up to look at her in alarm. She started crying, but it wasn't her normal wailing. It was softer, and Mamoru looked scared. "Usako, what's wrong...?"

She clapped a hand harshly over her mouth, and it stung. But she didn't really feel it, because her mind was too busy twirling around more important thoughts. "Mamo-chan." She reached out with her free hand and placed it on his cheek. Finding that she was uncomfortably stretching and that she was way too far from him, she dropped to her knees in front of his chair. He leaned over her, his eyes slightly confused... and hopeful. There was obvious, yearning hope in his dark blue eyes.

Her bravery came back to her. She smiled and dropped her hand from her mouth. Shakily, she reached her hand up until both of her hands were cupping his face. Bringing her face close to his, she felt his breath pass over her, and she smiled, because she knew it was labored from fear and excitement, and definitely not from pain anymore.

She opened her mouth to say it, but she didn't get the chance. Before she realized it, Mamoru's lips were on hers, and his arms were pulling her to him. She gasped into the kiss for a moment, but then she sank, falling into him. Her hands fell from his face and wrapped around his neck, and she pulled herself closer to him. An exhilarating feeling flooded through her, and she shivered when his lips parted over hers. He moaned softly, and she felt goosebumps cover her skin. Her lips parted as well, and her head began to swim—suddenly he pulled back, breathing harshly. He turned his head to look away from her, his face stained pink. Her chest was rising and falling just as quickly, and she stared at him with glazed eyes. He looked at her out of the corner of his eye. "I'm sorry, Usako... I..."

"Why?" She asked confusedly, her brow furrowing.

"I should have never..."

She sunk into the carpet, sighing dejectedly. Oh no... here it came. The rejection.

"You're so young, Usako..."

She knocked her head against his knee, leaning against him. "I see." So he wouldn't be with her because she was younger than him. Okay, so twenty and fifteen were pretty far apart, but... it wasn't fair!

"We can't... go too fast..."

Her ears perked. Wait a minute. She turned her head to look up at him. He was staring away from her, his brow furrowed. She pushed herself up again and leaned her stomach against the chair, her small frame resting between his legs.

"Mamo-chan?"

He looked at her, and blinked when he noticed that she was suddenly very close again. He cleared his throat nervously. Did she have to be that close?

"I was trying to tell you something before you kissed me." Usagi's face tugged into a small smile.

His did as well. He leaned down toward her again. "I know."

"I know you know." Her eyes were twinkling up at him, and her hands drifted up to wrap around his shoulders.

He laughed, and he leaned down closer so that his nose brushed against hers. "I know a lot more than you think I know."

"So do I." She grinned.

"Oh, and I know you know too."

"I know." Okay, honestly Usagi was getting a little confused now... she wasn't sure if she knew what they were even talking about anymore. She forced her eyes not to start swimming.

"You're a little spy," he teased, resting his lips against her cheek. She shivered and closed her eyes. Okay... yeah, she so knew.

"I'm sorry."

"I'm just glad I only wrote two entries in that damn journal," he grumbled against her skin.

Usagi giggled, sinking her fingers into his dark hair. "I'm glad you wrote them, too."

He pulled away from her skin to gaze down in her blue eyes. "You haven't said it."

"Neither have you." She tried pulling her lips into a serious frown, but her eyes were full of hopeful love.

His own lips twinged, wanting to smile. "Shall we say it together?"

Usagi's head began bobbing into short, cute nods, and he grinned. She stopped and looked up at him again. "I say we should do everything together."

"I agree," he whispered, leaning down to kiss her again. She smiled and tilted her head back.

As their lips met, they whispered together, "I love you."

* * *

Motoki blinked.

And he blinked.

And then, he continued to blink.

Mamoru and Usagi exchanged a glance while they stared across at their friend, who was still standing in the doorway and looking at the couple like they were growing horns out of their skulls.

"Motoki-kun," Usagi left the crook of Mamoru's arm to walk toward the blonde, who flinched when she put a hand on his arm. "Breathe, Motoki-kun..." She had done this before. Apparently, Motoki didn't do very well with shock.

Motoki's eyes shifted back and forth between Mamoru and Usagi. When the two had opened the door to him just a few minutes before, Usagi's arms had been securely wrapped around Mamoru's arm, her body tucked close to his.

Even more surprising, Mamoru looked completely well! If he looked closely, Motoki could see the faint traces of the cuts on Mamoru's face, but otherwise, the man was completely normal! How was that possible?! The man had been bedridden and in pure agony the day before, with scars covering him everywhere!

Motoki, with Usagi's prodding, finally shuffled into the apartment. He sank into one of the armchairs and stared across at Mamoru and Usagi, who curled close together on the sofa.

"Please," he squeaked. "Explain!"

Usagi, her eyes glued to Mamoru, scratched her cheek. "Where do we start?"

Motoki shook his head violently, pushing himself forward in the chair. His senses snapped back to him so suddenly that Usagi jumped. "How in the hell is Mamoru-kun well?!"

The couple looked at each other. "Well, the venom in me was caused from that youma," Mamoru answered. "The senshi killed the youma, and I got better."

Motoki's lips formed an "O" and he stared. "So it wasn't dead before?"

Usagi shook her head. "No. It regenerated. That's how Mamo-chan was so hurt."

"Ah," Motoki left it at that. The couple felt relief; it was a good thing that Motoki wasn't exactly the most prying indivi—they thought too soon. "What about YOU TWO?!" He suddenly yelled, pointing his finger between them. "So are you a couple now or what?!"

Mamoru looked down at the girl tucked warmly against his side, who looked back up at him with a soft smile. "We are," he said, beaming.

Motoki fell back into his chair, an exasperated sigh coming out of his mouth. He started laughing. "Well, it's about time!"

* * *

There was only one chair on Mamoru's balcony. He was only one person, so he had never really bothered to buy more than one chair for the space. He didn't have guests often, and the balcony had always been his own sort of quiet space.

But now he shared it with Usagi, and he was pleased to say that his one chair was still a very good idea. With her head tucked under his chin, she curled comfortably in his lap, one of her arms wrapped around his waist as the other rested on his chest.

He had been gazing up at the bright moon above them, but he gasped in surprise when he felt the girl unbuttoning his shirt. "Usako! What did I tell you about going slow?!"

Usagi rolled her eyes. "Mamoru-baka, I was just checking the scars. Jeez." She had undone three buttons, and she leaned down to place a small lingering kiss against his clear skin. "They're gone."

He felt shivers traveling up his spine, and he could only manage an "mmhmm."

Not bothering to button his shirt again, Usagi rested her head against his chest. "I love you, Mamo-chan."

"I've known that for a lot longer than you think," he chuckled, kissing her forehead.

Usagi scrunched her brow and pulled away from his chest so that she could look at him. "Wait, what?"

"Ah..." Mamoru blushed. "I overheard you and Ami talking about it earlier yesterday."

Usagi blanched. "What?!"

"You thought I was asleep, but..." He sighed. "I wasn't, unfortunately. I am gravely sorry, Usako. I hate eavesdropping, I really do. It's a horrible practice." Usagi coughed uncomfortably. "But I was... half awake, half asleep, and I just couldn't wake up."

"I see," she murmured, resting her head against his chest. "Are you telling me that we've both known? And we didn't say anything to each other?"

"I guess so," he said, and she warmed at the feeling of his voice vibrating in his chest against her ear.

"We're extremely insecure people," she giggled slightly, and he laughed as well, wrapping his arms around her tighter.

"I just didn't think I deserved you, Usako."

"I didn't think it was possible for you to love me." Usagi raised her head and they stared into each other's eyes for a long moment. Usagi pursed her small lips. "Mamo-chan, we've got issues."

He laughed at her face, pinched and cute, and he leaned down to kiss her. "As long as we have issues together, I don't think I care," he whispered, nibbling at her bottom lip gently.

"Me, either," she sighed gently.

"You sure you're not wishing I was Motoki?" He asked playfully, but Usagi saw him twinge slightly. She raised her eyebrows.

"Motoki-kun? Why would I want Motoki-kun?" She pursed her lips for a moment, and then she grinned. "Oh, I see." She laughed. "You did ruin my crush on Motoki-kun that day, by the way." She shrugged. "But it was like... it was easy to have a crush on Motoki, because I didn't have to fight it. I had a crush on you, too... or, er, Tuxedo Kamen, anyways." Usagi sighed and laid her head against his chest again. She listened to his heartbeat, and it made her smile, knowing that he was perfectly healthy once again. "I couldn't freely admit to anyone about my feelings for you, Mamo-chan. My friends would have thought that I'd gone psycho." Mamoru didn't say anything. He ran a hand up her arm softly. She felt his unease, and she smiled slightly. "And I guess it was just easier to have crushes than it was to admit to being in love with you. Especially since you were... well." She shrugged against him.

"Because I was a jerk?" Mamoru laughed hollowly. "I wish I could have stopped it. You terrified me, Usako."

"I know that now," she whispered.

They stayed quiet for a very long time, simply resting against each other as they soaked in the moonlight around them. It had been a very long weekend, but thankfully, it wasn't over yet. They had one more day, Sunday, to rest and be together, before Usagi had to go back to school and back home. Mamoru dreaded the moment she would leave the apartment, because he knew that it was be a cold place again without her light.

Then he smiled to himself, realizing that her light would always be with him now.

"What is it, Mamo-chan?" She suddenly asked; she was gazing up at him, her head on his shoulder.

"I was just thanking whatever powers may be that you're with me," he said softly. "But... who knows what we'll be facing in the future?"

Usagi flinched, realizing that he was speaking of the Dark Kingdom. "We'll be okay now that we can all fight together though, right?"

"I hope so, Usako," he murmured.

"As soon as we find the Ginzuishou and the Moon Princess, it'll be okay," Usagi sighed. "That's what Luna's always saying. Find the princess."

Mamoru looked down at her, and he kissed the top of her head. "Who knew you had a talking cat?"

"Luna's a talking pain in the a—"

"Usako!"

"Gomen ne." She giggled. She looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes. "But really, Mamo-chan. I believe we'll all be okay."

"Mmm."

"Is it wrong of me to want to thank the youma?"

Mamoru looked down at her with a strange expression, "Are you absolutely nuts?" written all over his face.

Usagi giggled. "I'm just saying. If that youma hadn't attacked you, I wouldn't have come here and taken care of you or read that journal. You would have never overheard me talking to Ami. We might not ever be together."

Mamoru rolled his eyes. "I also might be dead at this moment, Usako."

"Besides that, jeez."

He laughed. "I get what you mean though. I'm glad this happened, too. Not the pain," he winced in remembrance. "But that it brought you to me. Though... I would have acted on my love for you at some point... I would hope," he muttered.

"We've got issues, remember, Mamo-chan?"

"You're right. Maybe we should thank the youma."

"That's all I'm saying."

* * *

The End!

Well, I hope you all like it! Is an epilogue necessary? I know I didn't bring in the senshi again, but if you guys want one, I might write one. I like leaving it just as it is, though, personally. I dunno.

Please review and tell me what you think! I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Also, don't forget to check out my **Unforgettable Moments: 100 UsaxMamo Drabbles**! I've completed several at this point, and I'll be focusing on them more now that this story is complete.

Domo arigatou, ja ne!


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